Blessed with the deep
by Miss Banshee
Summary: A story about Dante and Zhalia in a  medievel  fantasy world.  Zhalia's struggle with her past and the affects it will have on her future.  The time has come to face reality but does she even want to live in this reality which makes her to a prisoner of her past?   Haunted by her memories she meets Dante and has to chose which way to go...
1. Chapter 1

Information

Hey guys…

Ok, my story takes place in some kind of fantasy world…

There are only humans and it's a little bit like medieval times…

I made a new kind of Huntik story but with the same characters. There are no spells and titans in it…

You know it's my first story so please forgive me mistakes…

I am a Dante and Zhalia fan so if you like Lok and Sophie this is going to be the wrong story for you, sorry.

Please review, tell me what you like and what you didn't like…

I will post links in later chapters so you'll see what costumes, dresses and other things I use…

I hope you'll have fun…

Please review…

Yours MissLaboe… J


	2. Nothing lasts forever

Chapter one:

It had been seven years, seven beautiful years. But Zhalia always knew, she and her family would never be able to escape the war at all.

Since many years there had been war in Isilya war between the foundation and the organization. Zhalia and the other people from the town didn't know much about it.

Since the war had started there had been invasions. Villages and towns were distroid and all that the enemies left was a bloody mess of sorrow and death.

But Zhalia and her family had always been able to escape the war. Seven years they had been hiding. But they realized how much they loved each other.

Zane, Zhalias older brother was watching over her. And Zhalias parents had always loved them more than anything else. But happy moments never last too long.

The organization had lost all the important fights of the last time. The foundation was too good, even for Klaus. Metz, the foundations new leader had everything under control and there were rumors that he had a new apprentice.

Dante Vale a unbelievable talented boy.

He had to do something. He needed a new weapon, something he could use against the foundation or someone.

And there she was. He had seen her a few times in the town where she lived.

She was seven years old and he could see that she was talented. Her brother was a good fighter but he was too old. He would never come with him and help the foundation. But she was young, too young to have her own opinion of what happened in the country.

Her brother had taught her how to fight with daggers. And she had learned early to protect herself because she had lived in war.

And as he saw her training with her brother in the woods, a plan grew in his mind.

She heard her mother screaming as the man put the sword to her neck. ``Go Zhalia, run! Forget about me´´. But Zhalia didn't want to. Of cause she was scared but she didn't want to leave her mother. She looked down to the limb body that lay on the ground

Zanes body. Her brother had tried to protect them but he had lost. She saw the diamond red blood running over the floor. She saw Zanes pale face get even paler. She had never thought he could die. Not her brother, not he brother who had always been there to protect her. She couldn't understand but now Zane was lying on the floor with blood streaming out of a big wound in his stomach.

Tears were streaming down here face when the man ran his sword through her mothers' throat.

It was still dark when she awoke from her sleep. She was ice cold but sweating. She had never had such a nightmare before. And something felt strange, something wasn't right. Slowly she went through the house. She was surprised as she saw that in her parents' room was still light shining.

She was happy that they were still awake. As she opened the door without knocking she only saw how her mothers' body was slipping on the ground. Her eyes grew wide, full of horror. She became pale. She didn't want to look down. Because she knew what she would see there. And she didn't want to see her brothers' corpse full of blood. Now she remembered what her mother had said to her in her dream:

``Go Zhalia, run! Forget about me´´.

Without thinking Zhalia kneeled down beside her brother and kissed his forehead as she softly extracted the daggers from his cold dead hands. She looked at her mother and slowly closed her eyes. And she knew, she would never ever see those eyes again.

Zhalia jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder. But as she turned around she saw her father. His face was no more full of happiness, no it was filled with sorrow. And the fear made a terrible mask out of his face. Zhalia felt a spark of hope as she saw him.

`` Zhalia my dear, we have to go! Don't waste time, they'll come back for…´´

His voice broke as a stream of blood trickled out of his mouth and nose.

And now Zhalia could see how a Blade was drilling through his stomachs flesh. Her father sank on his knees and fell limb to the ground. That was the moment when her feelings exploded. She now saw a man who was standing in front of her a bloody blade in his hands and a grin on his face.

Anger overwhelmed her. She didn't know how but after some moments the man was sinking to the floor a surprising look on his face. Zhalia ran to the window but all she saw was fire and blood. And she smelled the death that was wandering through each street taking what was now his.

That was the moment when she couldn't go on anymore. Slowly she felt how the adrenaline was draining from her blood. There was no more strength within her. And sorrow was overwhelming her. Everything became black…

**Uuuiiii… My first chapter is up… I hope you guys liked it…**

**Please review and tell me about what you like and dislike…**

**Yours MissLaboe… ****J**

And seven-year old girl broke in that night…


	3. Downright lies

Chapter two…

Klaus' pov:

Klaus watched the scene from the outside. He didn't feel bad conscience for the man that was killed in front of his eyes. That night he had sent a group of his army's men to the village. He had realized that the girl had too much to hold on. She would have never left her family for the organization. But now there was nothing left in her little heart than sorrow and a black hole that had to be filled.

And he had been able to wake the anger in her. She had passed her first challenge. The man which she killed without any problems was one of his best men. She would be able to survive his training and program. All that was left of the village was now smoking ruins. The girls' innocent past had been burned down with the village.

And her happy life had been destroyed by one single decision of him. Now she was vulnerable and he could manipulate her. He send his man away, he needed to speak with the girl alone now. He needed to earn her trust.

As he slowly approached her she looked up. And there was no more fear in her face. Her chocolate brown eyes were lightening up in anger. She stood up, ready to fight for her life if she had to.

Zhalias' pov:

Zhalia knew she needed to be strong. Like her brother had always…

No, she thought, her brother was no more there no one was there to help her. She was alone. She looked at the man that was coming closer and closer. He didn't look like he was a fighter. He was old, with grey hair and pale skin. There was something cold in his eyes that bothered her. But he was still, he didn't wear any weapons like the man did that killed her family.

Now the man stood in front of her.

``My dear girl, what happened here´´, he said in a low sad voice.

``I knew that this was going to happen one day, the foundation finally want to prevent the public. They haunt those down who can't fight for themselves. They kill them and hurt them with no reason. You poor girl they took everything from you, your family, your friends, your home. Do you want to let them go on with it? Soon there will be no safe places in the country´´.

``What do you want, you're not here to fight, I can see that. You don't have any weapons with you´´. She said.

``I am here to help you, to give you the chance to make them pay for what they did. Do you want that, or did your family die for nothing.´´?

``What could I do, I have nothing and I am just a little girl.´´.

``No, you are more, there's more within you, I can train you. And one day you will be able to get your revenge´´.

``You could do that?´´, she asked and hope rose in her.

``Indeed I could. But you would have to leave everything behind and it is going to be hard work´´.

``That is not important, they left me nothing, the stole everything from me… They will pay for what they've done to me´´.

Slowly she started to cry again. She just couldn't hold the tears back.

``You will make them pay. The organization knew that this was going to happen´´.

Zhalia looked out of the window. So it had been the Foundation, she thought. She had never heared something like that about them. It was not normal for the foundation to kill people. But things had changed. She looked at the man. He was friendly to her, he seemed to know many things about that war. And it seemed like he really wanted to help her. That moment she knew that she was ready, ready to fight back. Hate overwhelmed her and it felt like she wanted to scream but she didn't.

She locked every kind of feeling up in her mind. And she threw away the key. As long as her feelings wouldn't enter her heart she was safe. Love was just the first step on deaths path. She knew that know. And in that night Zhalia Moon became cold, cold to the world.

In that night the first stones of a wall were build which would define her from the rest of the world. Zhalia turned into a diamond:

Invulnerable, beautiful, conscienceless. Her feelings were dead. However she kneeled down beside her mothers' body and pulled a ring from her mothers' cold fingers. She didn't know why but she put it on.

She looked at the man that was no offering her a hand. She looked at it and finally took hold on it. She didn't think about any consequences, she just accepted the deal. And as she looked back to the house where she had lived until the foundation came, she knew that she would never be able to forget the pain.

Klaus' pov:

In Klaus' mind fireworks were exploding as she took his hand. He never thought that it would be that easy to make her go with him. But then he remembered that she still was a seven year old girl. What had he expected? That she would fight him, that she would have the strength to go?

No she was a weak little girl. Just tell her a lie and she'll come with you. As if the foundation could hurt so many people, first of all little girls. He turned to go and took the girl with him. They headed for the woods to find his horse.

Zhalias' pov:

And as they rode through the darkness she realized how tired she was. But still she couldn't sleep. She was scared that she would have to see the images of that terrible day again in her sleep. But that she remembered the wall that was locking her feelings up. And slowly her eyes closed and she fell asleep, a sleep without a dream, no colours, no pictures only darkness.

**Ok… I hope I did a good job…^^**

**Let me know about it…****J**

**Yours MissLaboe…**


	4. Just a dream?

Chapter three

Ten-year old Dante

He stood in a room. It was dark and he could hear screams. In front of him kneeled a girl maybe seven or eight years old and cried. He tried to help her but he was unable to move, he wanted to tell her that everything was alright but he had no chance. As much as he tried to move, he couldn't. Now he focused on the girl, she was slim and her skin was pale. Although she was crying she still had a beautiful face. Her midnight blue hair was falling into her face and tears were streaming down her cheeks. A man came from behind and touched her by her shoulder. She jumped slightly and turned around. He could see that the man talked to her but in the next moment Dante saw a blade move through the air. He tried to warn the girl and the man but he still couldn't move… Helpless Dante had to see how the blade ran through the man's stomach. Finally Dante was able to move again and he screamed in horror…

Drops of sweat were running down his face as Dante awoke in his bed. He was shivering. The moon shone in his bedroom. He still saw the helpless little girl kneeling on the floor as…

Wham…

The door was slammed against the wall as Metz ran into the room. Dante could see that he was worried.

``Dante, what's going on? What happened.´´, Metz asked, his voice anxious.

Dante rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times. Everything had been so real. The smell of death, the smoke of burning houses, the sounds of the girls cries,

``Nothing Metz, I just had a bad dream. Everything seemed so real you know.´´.

Metz looked at him in a caring way. ``You know Dante, in those times you shouldn't think that much about our problems. We have to focus our thoughts on our battle against the organization. Unless the organization there is nothing on this world that you need to be afraid of. And one day we will win.´´ Metz tried to comfort him.

``I know, I know, I guess I just slept bad. Good night Metz.´´.

``Good night boy, tomorrow a long journey is waiting for us. Tonight a village has been destroyed. We aren't sure yet but it seems as if the organization was behind this. You have to rest if you want to come with us tomorrow´´, Metz told him and closed the door behind him.

**I know it's a very short chapter…**

**I'll try to do better next time… But maybe you like it…**

**Yours MissLaboe…**


	5. A failed dream

Chapter four…

Twelve years later:

Zhalias' pov:

Zhalia woke up early that morning. She left the lights out. She liked the darkness, she had always liked it. You could hide perfectly, and the darkness had often saved her life in the past twelve years. Zhalia had changed in those years. She was no more a child. She had grown up and had turned into a beautiful young woman. She just didn't behave like one.

The past years had made her to a perfect assassin. In those seven years she had had time to finish the wall that was now locking her feelings up. She had never had friends. She didn't even know how to relate to people on her own age. She had used those years to train, to become better and better. She lived in the organizations basis.

And today her hard training would be rewarded.

Klaus had told her everything about the foundation, about Metz the leader, about Dante, Metz' apprentice. Dante was four years older than she was. It was their fault her parents had died. He was now twenty-three, and today Dante would become a part of the foundation. The foundation was planning that party for a very long time. And today she would get her revenge. Today they would pay for everything they did to her, they only knew that some assassin had been after members of the foundation.

Zhalia could remember it like it was yesterday. Scarlet Byrne, her first victim. Zhalia was ten when she killed Scarlet… One single move and the stupid girl was trapped. She still saw the fear on Scarlet's face as she stabbed her with the daggers. Killed by a ten year old, Zhalia thought ironic. A little smile rose on her face.

Number two was some other guy, a big, strong man. She had tricked him easily…

Number three: Tersley. How could Klaus even think that he was a challenge for her. Number four only some months ago was Eathon Lambert. He was a little bit more difficult. Very smart but they were all too nice. They tried to fight her with words. Like that would help.

And today finally number five and six: Metz, the famous leader of the foundation. She stood up. And put a candle on. She got dressed and left her room.

Klaus had told her that they would have a long ride until they came to the foundations basis.

A servant held her horse.

``Are you ready for your long awaited day mistress´´, one of the man asked.

She just nodded. She didn't have any interest in talking that moment. Klaus wouldn't come with them, he never did that. Zhalia now couldn't wait anymore. The journey had begun. The wind made her hair blow. She still couldn't believe that in the evening her family would be revenged. Twelve years she had waited. It had been painful. She had needed to learn types of fight. She had been wounded many times. Klaus had often forced her into pain. He had always told her that she would have to fight against the pain. And so she had done many times. She had understood that life wasn't about escaping the pain but rather making the pain be worth it.

In the evening she arrived at the basis. She was alone. She was creeping through the basis corridors and finally found the huge dining room in which the party took place. The long table was full of delicate food and drinks. No she could see Metz.

He looked older and his hair was now more grey than dark brown.

And next to him she could see Dante. He was tall for a twenty-three old. His russet-brown hair fell into his face. And if he wouldn't have been her enemy Zhalia would have thought that he was kind of handsome.

She waited until the party had come to its end. The guests were going home by now. Zhalia smiled. She would bring Klaus more than he would expect from her. The room was empty now. The only ones left were Metz and Dante. She wanted to be alone with them. The guests were now leaving the foundations property. And while Metz and Dante were talking Zhalia was creeping through the room. Quietly she closed the doors of the dining room and locked them up.

Then she went into the shadows of the room to hide.

``What?´´, Dante asked as the door didn't open.

``The door's locked but how…´´, Metz asked.

``Excuse me. Would you mind?´´, Zhalia said sarcastic as she held the key up in front of the two man. She smiled. She was now stepping out of the shadows to the window. ``Are you two searching for this…?´´.

``Who do you think are you that you can play such games with us?´´, Dante asked angrily. ``Give me the key, now!´´.

``Ooops´´ Zhalia smiled badly and let the key fall out of the window. Dante was now heading for her but she was easily avoiding him.

``Your foundation friends were scared before I killed them. Didn't you wonder what happened to them? Scarlet, Tersley and that Eathon Lambert. And now I will add someone to my list´´.

Dante made a step back and looked at Metz. He couldn't believe that the girl had killed the foundation members. But there were no doubts.

Zhalia now looked at Metz too. ``Do you know how long I have waited for that day? Seven years you know. And in those years I have changed, I have learned many things you will never know. I am no more that weak girl anymore. You will never be able to take anything from me again.´´.

`` What do you mean´´? Metz only looked at her. No she stood in front of him and smile was no lighten up on her face. Slowly she took her daggers out of her belt pouch. She was still fighting with the same daggers that she had taken from her brothers dead hands.

Dante jumped and wanted to help Metz as Zhalia put the daggers up to Metz throat.

``Stop Dante´´, Metz said, ``Let her explain´´.

Dante stood still but his eyes were betraying him. Zhalia could see that he was worried about Metz. Zhalia didn't move. She just looked into his eyes. They were filled with fear. Then she felt something new. She could identify herself with Dante. She had never felt something like that before. She saw the scene before her eyes like it was yesterday. The dark room and her father who was dying in front of her. Her eyes must have looked the same way like Dante's eyes were looking now. Zhalia looked down she couldn't kill Metz. Maybe twelve years had been a too long time. Maybe her pain had become a part of her.

Dante's pov:

The woman now looked up to him. Dante felt like he knew her from somewhere. He had seen those chocolate brown eyes before. Than he remembered the dream he had twelve years ago. And he remembered the girl that was lying on the ground, filled with sorrow. And in that moment Dante knew that the woman wouldn't kill Metz. He felt how everything was falling apart in the woman's mind. He felt how everything was coming down. The woman looked on the ground. Dante knew somehow that she was trying to hide the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. In that moment the girl dropped the daggers. Slowly she was sinking to the ground, her back against the wall. Dante looked up to Metz. They were both filled with sympathy for the girl. They both knew that she would not be a threat to them.

Suddenly the door was stamped out of the doorframe and in the next moment the woman was shot and blown against the wall.

``No´´, Dante screamed as he was heading forward. Guards had realized that something was wrong and they had decided to deal with the housebreaker on their own way.

Dante made his way to the woman. She was no lying limb on the ground. She didn't look self-confident anymore. There was no more strength in her appearance. On the opposite she looked like she had used up all of her strength and powers. Her midnight blue hair had fallen into her face. Her eyes were closed and Dante could still see tears running down her face. He lifted her had up on his knees as he realized that there was something hot and wet on his hands. Than he saw blood streaming out of a bullet wound in her shoulder.

``I need an ambulance here´´, he shouted. The woman was getting paler and paler.

Zhalias' pov:

All Zhalia could see was that the door was stamped open than there was only pain. She didn't have the strength anymore to hold on. The last time she had felt that way she had just lost everything in only one night. Now twelve years after that night she felt everything that she had masked. The pain was now not only flowing through her body but also through her soul. And as she went black there was nothing she wanted to do more. It was kinda easy. Everything went black and the pain was just ``pling´´ gone. So why not? Why not escaping the pain?


	6. Somewhere to begin

Chapter 5:

Dante's pov:

Dante looked at the young woman that was lying in the infirmary room's bed. He stood outside the room in the dark corridor of the infirmary and looked through a window into her room.

She had been in surgery for over three hours. The doctors had removed the bullet, they had stopped the bleeding. But she had still lost much of her blood. But the pain Dante had seen in her face and eyes wasn't physical. The pain she must have felt was worse, the pain was in her soul, deep, deep inside her soul. And Dante knew what ever had happened to her was something that could not be removed easily.

She would wake up in about three hours until than he could do nothing for her. He could not forget her eyes. They had been expressionless until they had been overwhelmed by pain. He decided that it would be the best to talk with Metz about it. Maybe the foundation would find something out about her past. He had never told anyone about the dream he had twelve years ago, but he still couldn't forget it. He knew now that the child in the dream was the woman in the lab, but no one would believe him. He turned around, and walked down the dark corridor. There was something about the woman he couldn't forget.

Zhalia's pov:

Zhalia recovered from her anaesthesia. She felt comfortable, but she knew that something was wrong. She was now able to open her eyes. She ley in a infirmary bed. The room was painted white and you could see the corridor through a window. She tried to sit up, but a stabbing pain was jerking through her shoulder. And she fell back on her pillow. Now she felt how her head started to throb. She was aching in pain. And then she remembered what had happened.

She couldn't believe that she had failed. Shame rose in her. She couldn't believe that the mission on which she had worked for twelve years had failed. She felt bad. She felt useless. Something else came up to her mind. Where was she? She could see that she was in some kind of infirmary. But who had brought her there? Who would care?

First of all now after she had failed the mission. No one would care about her now. She needed to talk to someone. She had to tell someone what had happened. Someone who understood what was going on inside her mind. Klaus would understand. She was sure about it. He had always helped her. He had been there for her. And he would be there for her in that dark moment of her life. But she couldn't get Dante Vale out of her mind. He had set something loose.

Somehow she knew that he had woken something that had slept inside her soul for a long time. Liberty. She wanted to be free. The last night had changed something. She had realized that she wouldn't be given anything back if she would destroy the foundation. Zhalia didn't know what had made this clear to her, but she knew that she needed a timeout. Some time alone in which she could think about her life and maybe about Dante Vale.

Zhalia shook her head which only brought her a much worse headache. No not about him, he wasn't part of her life and he would never be. All she knew was that she couldn't stay here. She would quit the organization work and she would live sometime in the woods. She had to find herself, after she had lost it twelve years ago.

She stood up slowly. She felt a little dizzy but it could have been worse. She looked around the room. Her old clothes were lying over a chair but as she looked at them she could see that they had no more their usual color. They were painted red and Zhalia remembered the shot she had heard before she had blacked out. She looked down on her and under her white nightgown she could see a bandage that was covering her shoulder.

She put her hand over her shoulder and tried to bear down the pain. Than something caught her eye, on the wardrobe's door hang a black new robe. Someone must have put it there for her. She looked at them. It was some kind of dress. Only that the skirt was on the one side shorter than on the other. It was black with silver chains as ornamentation. And what Zhalia liked most, it had black gloves and a black veil out of satin. It was the most beautiful dress she had seen in her life. She put the dress on and it fit her perfectly. The fabric felt good on her skin. She put on her old leather boots and she took her daggers. She had to go now.

She was creeping through the dark corridors. Her shoulder was hurting all the time, but Zhalia didn't care. She had now realized that she was still in the foundations basis. Someone of them had brought her to the infirmary. Maybe Dante? But it was regardless. Whoever had brought her there, he or she had been on the foundations side and though had helped her. The organization would have never done that. They had at least took someone like her into the dungeon, but not in the infirmary. Somehow Zhalia wanted to thank the foundation for keeping her save and for making her feel better after she was shot, but she didn't.

And as she stood outside the basis, she looked back. Tomorrow someone would realize that she had took off, but would someone care? Zhalia stole a horse out of the stable and made her way back to the organizations basis.

Hours later, early morning:

Zhalia was exhausted. It hadn't been easy to do such a journey with a hurt shoulder like hers. Blood was streaming through her bandage and her head hurt like hell as she arrived at the basis. She was near loosing conscious, but she managed to get up to her room. There she changed bandages and cleaned the wound. After some hours of sleep she felt better, but her shoulder would hunt her some time longer. In the morning Zhalia left her room. She still felt like she needed to talk to someone.

She made her way down to the cellar of the building. Klaus' lab was down there. There he was experimenting on some stuff she didn't know about. She opened the door to the lab and now she saw Klaus with his back to her. The lab was a dark room without windows. Everywhere were serums and poor animals with those Klaus did his experiments. Knifes and other stuff with that he could torture people. It was some kind of creepy place.

But Zhalia knew this room very well. She had spent many times here. Sometimes she waited for Klaus. And there were the times in those she had been taught to fight against the pain. In those hours she had been totured. Zhalia had always hated to see those poor little mice. As she was a small child she had always rescued them when no one had watched her.

`Klaus´, Zhalia said. She felt uncomfortable.

`Yes, my dear´, She heard and Klaus finally turned around. `How did your mission work´, he asked. Zhalia looked on the ground, she didn't want to look him in the eyes while telling him about her failure.

`I didn't make it´, Zhalia answered quietly. `I couldn't do it. You know, I couldn't kill them. It wouldn't have made any sense. I wanted to, but then I remembered how I felt as they killed my family. It would have been wrong to do the same. I would have been as bad as them. I'm sure you understand this´, she stopped. Everything had become quiet in the lab. Klaus had stopped working.

`And´, he asked.

`I want to take a timeout. I want to quit my work for the organization. I know you've done so much for me, but I need to find my own way´, Zhalia looked him now in the eyes. She tried to find a sign of understanding in his eyes, but there was nothing. They were cold as always.

`I have done so much for you Zhalia. But that doesn't matter now, because I didn't do that for you. Did you really think that I did that for you? And now you fail the only mission I have worked on for twelve years. And now I realize that my work was for nothing. It looks like you were never more than a little girl´, Klaus said, his voice as cold as his eyes.

Zhalia wasn't able to say anything. She had thought he would kind of understand. But now she understood, that she was never the one Klaus had cared for. The only thing Klaus had cared for the mission and that was the reason why he had took her in.

`And you know Zhalia. Now that you are no more my business I can tell you what really happened twelve years ago. It was never the Foundation that killed your family. It were my men who killed your family in front of your eyes. And believe me I had fun watching it. And you had been so easy to satisfy. But I was wrong. And now I have to destroy the weapon that I build in the last twelve years. Good bye Zhalia´, Klaus said this almost like his thoughts were elsewhere.

He didn't even look hurt or disappointed. There was nothing.

Zhalia only looked at him. Her eyes were sparkling in anger. She made a step back.

`You told me lies. My whole life you told me lies. You killed them for your experiments. I was never more than an experiment for you. And the worst thing is that they wouldn't have needed to die. Why hadn't you just chosen another girl. Another girl to take her family from her. One night ago I have nearly killed two innocent men. Have you ever thought about that. Have you ever thought about those people that I killed. They had a family too, a life, friends. You are a monster and you have made me to a monster. To a monster not different to you´, Zhalia felt tears running down her cheeks as she cried those words.

`How heart-warming. It makes me want to vomit´, Klaus said sarcasticly.

That was enough for Zhalia. She had trusted him. She had been too young to realize how bad all this organization stuff was.

`You can't destroy me. I have learned too much from you´, she told him and made herself ready to fight. But what she had forgotten was that she was still injured. Klaus called his suits.

`You don't even fight for yourself. I should have known that´, Zhalia said.

Two suits attacked her. The first one was easy to break. Though she didn't kill him. Zhalia had killed enough in her life. That she had realized. Klaus watched the scene. Still emotionless. Zhalia looked at him and just for a moment she had lost control about the fight. The next thing she felt was that she was lying on her back heavy breathing. The suit tried to kick her but she countered. Though she didn't have enough strength and the next kick hit her in the stomach. She felt like the whole world was upside down. She saw stars blinking before her eyes and she coughed blood. The suit tried to attack again but this time she was faster. She stood of and slammed his head against the wall. He would be no danger for her any more. It was silent in the lab. She had to cough again and as she looked on her hand she saw that she was still coughing blood. Now she looked up to Klaus. He looked at her and something in his expression told her that he was scared and she liked that. She made her way to him.

`I'm sorry it has to end like this, but you give me no other choice´, she said self-controlled. It made a loud crack as she broke his neck. Klaus body fell to the ground. He was dead. Zhalia closed her eyes. She didn't want to see him. She looked up and saw the mice. She smiled. It looked like she wouldn't be the only one who became her liberty back. She made her way to the cage and took it with her as she left the building, still wearing the foundations dress.

As she was outside the building she looked back a last time than she was heading for the woods. The organization would soon search for her. They would soon have a new leader.

She was heading through the woods as she kneeled down She opened the cage and the little mouse family scuttled out of the cage. Zhalia looked at them. They were four mice. She smiled and somehow was remembered of her family. They had been four too until that night twelve years ago. The mice looked at her with beady eyes like they would want to thank her and then they were scuttling away to somewhere where they could live in safety.

**Hey guys…**

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**Yours MissLaboe… **


	7. A place to begin

**Chapter six:**

Dante's pov:

Dante was still thinking about the woman. She had left three days ago and he didn't hear anything suspicious. He was very busy in those days because the Foundation was checking their security systems. It never happened before that someone had been able to get in unseen. While he and other members were testing the system he realized that the woman must have been taught to sneak into houses. She hadn't been trapped by the safety catch and no one had seen her. She was a master. He realized that now, while he was trying to not be caught from the security system. And she had been able to get out again. And she had been injured. He didn't want to think about it, but she was maybe even better than he was. The Foundation was trying to catch her. Guggenheim and Metz were suspecting that the Organization was behind the whole thing. Dante had told him about the dream, he had years ago. Metz found out that the woman must have lived in one of the villages, the organization had destroyed. Her name was Zhalia Moon. And she had been the only person, who had survived years ago. Although no one had ever seen her after that night. But three days ago she had showed her face to the world again. She must have been hiding herself from everyone, which Dante thought, was a wastage, because her face was very beautiful. Beautiful, but sad. There was something about the girl he couldn't forget. Maybe her chocolate brown eyes.

Dante was walking through the corridors, as Metz approached him. He was in a young boys company.

`Dante, good to see you. I want to introduce you to Lok´, Metz said with a smile on his face. `Lok is Eathon Lambert's son and his mother send him to us, because he seems to be having potential´.

`Hi, nice to meet you´, was al that Dante said. He had other worries than a 15 year old boy that wanted to a Foundation member, but Metz put a hand on his shoulder.

`Dante, I had an idea lately. It is time that you are getting an apprentice and I thought that young Lok might be the right person. He is willing to learn and you would be able to teach your talent to someone´, Metz sad with a hopeful spark in his eyes.

`I don't think so´, Dante sad silently. He looked down at young boy. He had blond hair. His hopeful face turned into a disappointed and sad face. The boy looked on the floor.

`I think you should at least think about it. You are old enough Dante and deflect you from what happened. You are spending too much time alone in your room. You need a duty´, Metz sounded disappointed.

Everything was quiet. Metz looked at Dante with a glance, on which every dog would have been jealous.

`No it's ok. He doesn't have to do that, if he doesn't want this. I don't want to annoy anyone or get on anyone's nerves´, Dante and Metz now both looked down at the boy. The boy turned around and made his way to the door with his had hanging low.

Metz looked at Dante with, this time with a glance that meant: `See what you've done. You bounced the boy's dream like a soap bubble´.

Dante sighed. `Ok, I'll teach you. Metz will show you your room´.

The boy spun around. `Really? Check, that's great thank you. I swear, I won't get on your nerves´.

`Yes, I see that´, Dante said. He looked at Metz. Metz looked happily back, as if nothing had happened.

`Good, I knew you would be a great team. Come Lok, I'll show you your room', with that Metz turned to go and left a furious Dante.

I don't believe it, Dante thought. Like I don't have anything else to do. Now he could forget his plan to search for Zhalia Moon. This trip would be way too dangerous for a boy like Lok.

**Zhalias pov:**

Zhalia had been living on her own for three days now. She had made the decision to go to a village. There she would buy new clothes, she would book a room in a guesthouse, where she could stay until her injuries were healed. She had spent the past three days in a near forest. There she had been able to hide herself. She knew that the Organization was searching for her. They would want to revenge Klaus. And she had betrayed them, the Organization feared that she would offer their plans, secrets and other things to the Foundation. Zhalia knew that her picture was now hanging on the Organization's conference room wall. Most likely with a red lettering which read: `WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE´.

The village was small. The houses were simple. In the village's forum was a market. There were many small streets in which someone who didn't know the area would have trapped himself. But Zhalia had always had a good sense of direction. Children were running through the streets playing games and laughing. Zhalia remembered the many days on which she had played with her brother on the streets. She smiled a small smile, but was still very careful. The Organization had their scouts everywhere. She finally made her way to the guesthouse. At the reception a man waited and greeted her. He looked at her is an weird and curious way. Than his expression changed.

`Hello madam, what can I do for you´, he asked with a friendly smile.

`I need a room, for about five days´, Zhalia said condensed. The man looked friendly he had short blond hair and wore glasses. `Of cause. Your name please? ´, he said.

Zhalia hadn't thought about that. Of cause she wouldn't tell him her true name. `Kayla Evans´, she finally said. She had chosen the first name that she had thought of. Her mother's maiden name.

`Would the young lady mind telling me what she is doing in such unimportant village´, the man asked.

`No the young lady would mind. Can I see my room now? ´, Zhalia answered furious. She had never really contact to other people. And her behavior wasn't the friendliest. The man looked at her. He just wanted to be friendly. He wrote something into his planner.

Than he called: `Sophia, Would you come here please´. First everything was quiet, than a young girl entered the room. She was maybe 15 years old and Zhalia had the feeling, that this girl had never seen something that was more dangerous than a spider. She was slight and small. She had green eyes. Her hair was brownish-honey coloured and long.

`Yes, Jonathan´, she asked.

`Would you please bring the young madam up to her room´, the old man told her.

`Of cause, follow me please´, she said to Zhalia with an honest smile. The girl looked like she was waiting for an answer, but when Zhalia didn't say a word, the girl just headed for the stairs.

It was an old house. It was made of wood and brickearth. The stairs were creaking under every step they had to lift. On the third level of the house the girl finally stopped.

`Ok, this is your room. Here are the keys´.

Zhalia took the keys and unclosed the door. She walked into the room. It was a big room. Face to face to the door stood a bed and next to it a table. In the middle of the room was a little table with a sofa. In another corner of the room stood a wardrobe and there was another door, that would most likely lead to the bathroom. Zhalia entered the room. It was not like her old room, but it would be enough for some days. That was when she noticed that the girl was still standing behind her.

`My name is Sophia, but only my grandfather calls me that´, she said nicely.

`Interesting´, Zhalia said. What did she think, that she would be friends now, just because she had showed her room to her.

`My friends call me Sophie´, she said besetting and still smiling. Oh great, Zhalia thought, she thinks we're friends.

`Ok Sophia, why don't you just go down to your friends and leave me alone´, Zhalia tried again to make her go. She turned her back to the girl and made her way to the window. She was able to see the street and the people that were going after their work.

`You know, there aren't often young people, especially women, coming to this village. Where are you from? ´, Sophie asked, still paying no attention to what Zhalia had told her.

That was enough. The girl was starting to get on her nerves. Zhalia spun around and made a quick step into Sophie's direction. She stopped. Knocking Sophie out and locking her in a room until her grandfather would find her, would only bring her trouble and problems, Zhalia thought. She tried to detain the impulse in her hand from beating Sophie.

`Ok little Miss ``I talk too much´´. If you don't get your ass out of this room yourself, I'll help you and kick your ass out of this room. Understood? ´.

Sophie looked at her in a hurt way, but soon her gaze turned from distressed and hurt to hateful. `How can you talk to me like that? I'm a Casterwill! ´, she whispered, her voice full of hate.

`A Caster-what please? ´, Zhalia asked annoyed.

`A Casterwill. I am the last living heiress and family member of the Casterwill family. An old noble family. Once my family saved the world from its destruction and you think you can talk to me like I am your servant´, Sophies voice was getting flashy and flashier. Her cheeks were burning red.

Zhalia tried to hold back an evil laughter, but it didn't work out. She was sure, that Sophie would soon start to chuff little damp clouds out of her ears.

`Well if that's true, it looks like your family didn't leave you any of their talent and glory´, Zhalia said with an evil smile. Sophie's eyes filled with tears

`My family was killed, I live here with my godfather´, she cried and turned around. Zhalia heard her running down the stairs.

Zhalia closed the door. She would have never thought, that there was something she had in common with that chick, but in the past time many things had happened, which she had never been able to even think about. She tried to forget about her argument with Sophie. She would try avoid her for the next days.

**Rassimov's pov:**

Rassimov was sitting in the Organization's conference room. He felt good. Yesterday the Organization had made him to its leader. He didn't even have to kill Klaus. His stupid apprentice did that. He smiled. Now he only had to kill that girl. And that couldn't be that difficult. Although the girl knew everything about the Organization. She had to be exterminated. She was a threat to the Organization.

He turned around as a man entered the room. It was Jonathan Crane. The Organization's agent that was playing godfather for Sophia Casterwill. Rassimov's sister Shauna had that idea. Now he was able to control Sophia Casterwill and she wasn't even suspicious. Jonathan was living with her in a guesthouse and as soon as the girl would show her family's talents, Jonathan could kill her or take care of her powers. Now he no more had to worry about the stupid Casterwill girl.

But now Jonathan was there. That meant something must have happened. He looked at the man.

`Sir. I am having good news for you´, Jonathan said.

`Speak´, was Rassimov's short reply.

`I found Zhalia Moon. She is at my guesthouse. I think Klaus didn't tell her about me, at least she didn't recognized me. She is still injured and she wants to stay for about five days´, Crane said quickly.

`Are you sure? ´, asked Rassimov.

`Of cause Sir, I know her and she told me that her name was Kayla Evans. As far as I know, was her mother's maiden name Kayla Evans. That can't be a fortune´, he said.

`Fine, fine. It looks like she is trapped. We will get to your village in about two days. Make sure she is still there. We will exterminate them both. Now we are able to not only kill Zhalia Moon. No, we are able to kill Sophia Casterwill too´, Rassimov smiled viciously.

These were good news.

**Hey guys… **

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	8. The end is where we start from

**Chapter seven:**

**Dante's pov**

Dante sat on the on the Foundation's training room's floor. He had tried to teach Lok some different fight moves. Well he had tried, that was all he could say. He couldn't say that look wasn't committed, but he was, let's say clumsy. And now Dante was sitting on the floor, while Lok was jumping through the training room like a monkey. Yes, Lok was a nice guy. Dante gave him a chance and he turned out to be a good friend. He was just sometimes a little bit childish. And that now was one of these moments in which Dante almost felt like he was a baby sitter and not a Foundation seeker. Metz and Guggenheim had left the basis to follow Zhalia Moon's tracks. Dante was almost mad at them. He had wanted to go after her and now he was sitting around in the basis with a monkey that pretended to be a 15 year old boy. He had been worrying about the woman, while she was injured, not them, not Metz, not Guggenheim. Metz and Guggenheim had been on their trip for five days now and they still hadn't found her.

In that moment the doorbell rang. Dante jumped up to his feet, which appalled Lok and the boy fell with a loud `Wham´ on the ground. Dante didn't mind, he made his way up to the door, through the basis. He opened the door and Metz and Guggenheim stood in front of him. They were alone. Dante looked at them puzzled.

`Hello Dante. Our trip came to a surprising end. I think we should all go up to the living room´, Metz said with a calm voice. Dante only looked at him. He opened his mouth to say something, but Guggenheim shook his head slightly. Dante closed his mouth again and led them to the living room.

`Where is Lok? Is he making a good progress? ´, Metz asked, still not looking Dante in the eyes.

`Metz what happened, what's going on? ´, Dante asked his voice full of worry.

Metz looked to the ground, than he looked up `Dante, I want you to be calm now. I am sorry, but she is dead´.

Dante's eyes were filling themselves with anger and sorrow. `How´, he asked.

`The Organization was faster than we were. We found a village that was burned down. No one had survived and in the ruins we found the dress, which you gave to her. It was full of blood and we were no more able to identify her body. We tried it, but the body was too burned and injured. I am so sorry Dante. I know the girl was important to you, but we can't save everyone´, Metz put a hand on Dante's shoulder. In that moment Dante realized that he was shaking. He turned around and headed to the door.

`That won't bring her back´, was the only thing Dante answered. With that he left the room. He felt weak. The woman had been haunted by the Organization too. And now there no more was a chance to find out what she did, but that wasn't the thing that bothered him. He was sad, filled with sorrow. He didn't know why, but this woman had somehow meant something to him. And now there was nothing left of her than a dead body…

**Zhalia's pov:**

**Two days earlier:**

Zhalia went through the dark streets. It was about three o`clock in the morning. Again she had been hunted by nightmares, so she had left her room for a walk. It looked like it would start to rain soon. Zhalia was happy, all of her injuries had healed well and she had bought new clothes, but there was one thing that she almost liked more. She knew that someday the Organization would find her. She had to change her look. One day earlier she had dyed her hair red. First she wasn't very fond of it. She had always liked her midnight blue hair, but she had no other chance. Her hair was now curly. Although Zhalia knew that she would come back to her old hair colour as soon as she had left the country. She now no more wore Dante's dress, she had bought a new one. It was in the style of wood men. It was from a brownish green colour and over the dress she wore a bodice. In about three days she would leave. She opened the door to the guesthouse and walked upstairs. The stairs were creaking. She hated that. She entered her room and closed the door behind her.

`Are we having a new hair cut? ´, a voice behind her made her jump. Quickly she took out her daggers, ready to kill, when she realized that it was Sophie, who was nearly stepped by her daggers.

`What are you doing in my room, are you sneaking on me? I remember booking a room, but not an annoying chick´, Zhalia whispered. If it wouldn't have been night, she would have screamed. What did that girl think?

Sophie looked unimpressed `Where are you going every night? I know that you leave the house, tell me´.

Suddenly Zhalia smelled something strange. First she didn't know what, but then she knew it. It was fuel.

` Shut up´, she said quickly.

`No, I'm not shutting up. I don't know what. But you have something to hide. You are…´, but Zhalia cut her off.

`Get out of here. Leave the village. Hurry´, she said. Sophie just looked at her.

`Do you think you can tell me what to do? I'm a Casterwill, remember? You can't…´, Sophie protested.

In that moment the house next to the guesthouse exploded. Sophie screamed. They didn't have time. Zhalia took Sophie's wrist and dragged her to the window.

`Jump´, Zhalia called.

`What, what, I can't, I will hurt myself… Aaaaaah!´, too late Zhalia had pushed her out of the window and followed her quickly. Of cause they didn't get hurt by jumping out of the window.

`Are you crazy? You will kill us both you…´, wham a peace of brick from another blown up house knocked Sophie out.

`No´, Zhalia screamed. Blood was flowing out of a wound in Sophie's head. Great, Zhalia thought. Zhalia lifted her up. And behind them the guesthouse exploded. Zhalia heard people screaming and children cry. She brought Sophie out of the village to a near wood.

She looked down at the girl, than she made her way back to the village. She was creeping through the streets to the place, where now only the ruins of the guesthouse were. The Organization would search for her body she thought. She found some old things that had been in her room.

There it was. The dress, which Dante had left her. Of cause it was burned but she could still identify it. She scanned the area. Everywhere was smoke. Finally she saw a dead woman's body. The woman could no more be identified. She was burned and injured.

Zhalia changed the woman into the dress and put her near the guesthouses ruins. The Organization would fall for her trick. They would believe that she was the dead woman. Her hands were painted red from the dead woman's blood. She was making her way through the streets back to Sophie as she heard voices.

`Is she dead, Jonathan? ´, a man asked.

`Yes master, she couldn't have survived that blast and I found a body. She was wearing the dress, which she wore as she came to the village´, a man answered and Zhalia recognized his voice. It was Jonathan, Sophie's ``godfather´´. He must have been a spy. He had betrayed Sophie, her whole life. And the other man had to be Rassimov. She had seen him sometimes, while working for the Organization. He was a barbarous and cruel man. He had to be the new leader of the Organization. Things were getting better and better, she thought ironical.

Sophie still hadn't woken up as Zhalia arrived. She was pale and her face was full of blood and coom and dirt. Zhalia felt uncomfortable as she remembered that she somehow had to tell her, that her beloved godfather was a two-faced ass, who had betrayed her. Zhalia knew that Sophie was in need of a healer and she herself didn't feel well too. She had breathed in too much smoke and she felt dizzy. Although her wounds had healed, she still was weak and tired. Zhalia knew though, that they didn't have time. The sun would rise soon and then the Organization would probably check the paths.

Zhalia lifted Sophie up. Luckily Sophie was a small girl, although Zhalia wasn't very fast. There was only one place she could go. The Huntik Foundation. It was the only place, where she could be sure the Orgnization wouldn't find them. Somehow Zhalia knew that in the next time Kayla Evans would live again, not Zhalia Moon. She hoped that Dante and the others wouldn't recognize her. She didn't want to explain anything to them. She would only bring Sophie there, rest a while and then she would go her own way. At least Zhalia hoped that.

On the next farm I'll steal a horse, Zhalia thought furious.

**Dante's pov:**

**In the present again:**

Dante had locked himself up in his room for hours now. He still couldn't believe it. She was dead. He tried to understand why it meant so much to him. He didn't even know her. Suddenly someone knocked at his door.

`Dante, Metz needs your help´, Lok's voice sounded hushed through the door's wood. Dante sighed. He couldn't lock himself up forever. There were people dying everyday, because of the Organization. In the last days, she had died, tomorrow maybe he would die and the world would just go on turning. He opened the door.

`Where is he? ´, he asked.

`Downstairs, he needs help bringing an injured girl in the infirmary room´, Lok answered, happy that his mentor was talking to him again.

`Ok, thanks Lok´, Dante said and hurried downstairs. As he made his way to the living room he passed some doctors that were carrying a barrow with an injured girl lying on it. The girl was maybe as old as Lok. Her head was wounded and she was unconscious. In the living room Metz and Guggenheim were waiting for him.

`Good to see you Dante. Looks like you're feeling better´, Guggenheim said. Dante just nodded.

`What happened? ´, he asked Metz. Metz made a step to the left and Dante was now able to see a young woman. He made a step ahead and the woman looked at him.

`What is it? ´, she asked. Dante couldn't believe it. He looked at her. If her hair wouldn't have been red and curly, she could have looked like Zhalia Moon. But then he reminded himself of her death. It couldn't be.

`I'm sorry. I must have took you for someone else. I didn't want to scare you´, he said quietly.

The woman only looked at him.

`Like you did´, was the only thing she said while looking at him sarcastically. Although the woman's behavior was the one of a strong woman, she looked weak and exhausted.

Her hair was red and curly although it wasn't combed it still looked beautiful. She wore a brownish green dress. Her pale skin was covered with coom and dirt. Her eyes were chocolate brown, but to Dante it seemed, like she didn't want to look at him. He didn't know if it was fortune or volitional, but her hair fell into her face, so couldn't see her face clearly.

`Dante, this is Kayla Evans´, Metz said ` she rescued and brought Sophia Casterwill to us. Their village has been destroyed by the Organization. Sophie and Kayla will stay at the basis. Sophie needs medical attention and Kayla wants to rest´. Dante nodded. The woman still didn't look him in the eyes.

`Kayla, I will bring you to the infirmary. One of our healers will check your injuries´, Guggenheim said friendly.

`No, I don't need a doctor. All I need is a room´, The woman stood up quickly and made her way to the door.

Metz and Guggenheim looked puzzled. `Ok, if that's what you wish. Dante, show Kayla her room please´, Metz said.

Dante nodded again. He followed the woman to the door. He brought her upstairs. When he opened a room for her he looked at her once again. She didn't look healthful. She looked weak and exhausted, uncountable scars and scratches were covering her pale skin.

One of the scars started over her left eyebrow and ended under her left eye. The scar looked gory. She must have gotten it recently.

`Are you sure you don't need a doctor´, he asked.

He put his hand up to her face to touch the scar, but suddenly she bat his hand away. It made a loud `smack´ as her hand met his. She had good reflexes. She held on to his hand.

Dante was startled. She came nearer and looked him in the eyes now. Her eyes were completely cold. He felt her nails engraving little cuts in his palm.

`Don't ever dare to touch me again´, she said with an icy voice. As fast as she had bat his hand, she let it fall again and entered the room.

Dante heard a loud ``bang´´ from behind him and he knew that she had banged the door. He looked down at his hand. There were five little cuts on it, one on the back of his hand and four on his palm. Little drops of blood were flowing out of every cut…

**Zhalia's pov: **

Great, now she had his blood on her hands.

She leaned against the door. She didn't have another chance. If they would examine her, they would find out who she was. Her further bullet wound could still be seen. She didn't feel good. She didn't want anyone to touch her. Not after she had lost everything. She was vulnerable. She knew that she had already become weak. Six weeks ago she wouldn't have rescued Sophie and it was his fault.

It had been Dante's eyes that had remembered her of other people's pain, of her pain. She wouldn't let herself be manipulated. Not by Dante Vale. He would not manipulate her…

**Well,**

**It looks like you guys are very lucky, because I have found the time to write a new chapter… **

**I hope you like it, because it was hard work. I also have a link for Zhalia's new dress… You will find the link on my profile… Please tell me if you liked it… **

**Thanks for all the nice reviews…**

**Thanks for reading…**

**Yours MissLaboe…**


	9. A new home

**Chapter eight:**

**Zhalia's pov:**

Zhalia awoke two days later in the afternoon. She was now no more tired. Slowly she remembered what had happened. She stood up and dressed herself. Everything was so unreal. The people in the village had died because of her. She was the one the Organization had been searching for. They had died.

They didn't have any fault. They had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. In the last days hundreds of people had died, because she wasn't able to wangle her life. Many years ago she had been the one, who was nearly killed, while her village had been destroyed. She had asked Klaus so often why the people had died. And now she felt guilty. Years ago a village had been destroyed because the Organization had searched for her and now it had happened again.

Again a village had been destroyed, again people had died, again children had lost their parents, like she had lost hers years ago. Zhalia felt dizzy. She felt guilty. She felt like there was no place she could go, without risking someone's life. They would follow her everywhere. Of cause they thought that she was dead now, but they would find out. One day they would find out that Zhalia Moon changed into Kayla Evans.

But that wasn't important now. If Zhalia would have known that the Organization would destroy the whole village, she would have never come there. She would have rather let herself be killed. But now those poor people had paid for her mistakes.

She leaned against the wall. Maybe she should have died. Maybe all those people would go on living their life now, if she wouldn't have come there. Of cause she hadn't been the one who burned down their houses, but she was the reason. And without a reason they wouldn't have been killed. She was as much their killer as the Organization was.

Zhalia sank to the ground. She tried to calm herself down, but she was no more able to think clearly. Those facts felt like new wounds that weakened her body. Her breathing became heavily and she felt tears running down her cheeks. She had never had a guilty conscience and now it hit her with full force.

She tried to suppress her sobbing, but she failed. Her body was shaking. She hated herself for being the reason why those people had died. After some minutes she became silent. Everything was silent in the room. It was weird. As she roughly wiped away the tears she felt a slight ache near her left eye. She looked down on her hand and saw that her hand was painted red with blood. The scar that was decorating her left eye had started to bleed again.

Great, she thought and stood up.

**Dante's pov:**

Dante sat in the living room. It was afternoon and he was reading a book, but he was more listening and laughing about Lok and Sophie. The girl turned out to be very nice. Yes, she sometimes seemed to be smart-alecky, but she was a good girl. She helped Lok training his fighting types and she herself was an acceptable fighter. Although Dante knew that she would make a better choice if she would work as one of the Foundations organisers than one of the Foundations seekers. Somehow Dante knew that she was one of those girls that liked to be rescued.

Suddenly he felt a slight pain in his hand. He looked down. The small cuts on his hand, which Kayla had caused with her finger nails, had started bleeding again. He didn't know why. They had nearly healed in the last two days.

Abrupt the door opened. Kayla Evans entered the room. From up there Dante wasn't able to concentrate on his book again, although Dante had resolved to not get into her way.

`My God, Kayla you're bleeding´, He heard Sophie screaming.

Now Dante was no more able to pretend that he was reading. He looked up. Kayla has sat down in the armchair in front of the window. She didn't look tired anymore, but she was still pail. Most of her cuts had healed. Then he looked up to her face. The scar at her left eye was bleeding. A single drop of blood was running down her cheek and it looked like she was crying tears of blood. Her eyes were somehow empty.

Sophie went up to her and it looked like she would want to touch the scar. Kayla looked at her with a glance that made Sophie freeze. Kayla now glanced at Dante. She noticed his hand and saw the blood streaming down his wrist.

`Sophie. Look at Dante's hand, than you know what will happen to your hand if you try to touch me´, she said with a small smile.

Even if it was a sarcastically smile it made her look beautiful, Dante thought.

`Wohoo, Dante! She was able to hurt you. You let yourself be beaten by a girl? ´, Lok called with a grin. It seemed to be very funny to him, that his mentor had been beaten by a girl.

Dante blushed. Great, his apprentice was making fun of him.

`Normally women don't slap me´, Dante countered with an insulting grin.

`Well, there is always a first time, right´, Kayla smiled. Sophie looked a little bit troubled, so she started talking to Lok again.

`Lok, you said your family would visit you soon. When will they arrive? After what you told me about your sister, I would be looking forward to meet her´, Sophie said.

`They should arrive in about two weeks. Maybe they'll come earlier, they are having trouble with the Organization recently´, Lok answered. They want them to leave their house. The Organization somehow found out that I'm part of the Huntik Foundation now.

Dante knew that Lok couldn't wait showing his mother, what he had learned. Lok's training made good progress, Dante knew why the boy was working that hard. He wanted to be as good as his father had been. He wanted to make his mother proud of him. Maybe it was good for him that Sophie was here. They seemed to like each other and Sophie had somehow turned out to be his new best friend. Sophie and Lok started chasing themselves through the room.

Kayla looked annoyed and rolled her eyes. Her glance wandered through the room and met his. She looked at him for a short time, than she abruptly stood up. Dante looked at her puzzled. She left the room and he quickly followed her. She had not noticed him following her, Dante thought, because she didn't turn around. She went outside to the Foundation's gardens.

After some minutes she sat down on a bench. Dante hid himself behind a big tree. Something was wrong about her, maybe he could find out, he thought.

`You can come out now Dante´, he heard her saying.

He couldn't believe it. She had noticed him. And now he knew it. He hadn't been the one who decided to follow her. She had wanted him to follow her and he had been taken in by her little games. She was good, he had to admit.

`If you want anything from me that is your chance´, she commanded with an icy voice.

Dante didn't know what to say next. He couldn't just tell her that something about her was wrong. If he did that she would leave and that was just the one thing he didn't want her to do. He wanted her to stay.

`You seem to be a good fighter. I mean you saved Sophie from the Organization´, he finally said. She still stood with her back to him.

`That wasn't really a fight. It was more tactics´, she answered.

`That is not important, the Foundation needs new members who are good in tactics and fighting´, he countered quickly.

`Was that an offer´, she asked.

`If you want it to be one´, Dante said. She turned around.

Dante recognized that she somehow looked distressed. He couldn't understand that woman. In the one moment she was calm, nearly uninterested. In the next moment she was distressed and angry, sometimes even repelling. The only thing he knew was that her eyes were always cold, too cold for such beautiful eyes.

`I'll think about it´, she said. She seemed to be somewhere else with her thoughts. She turned around and left without a word.

Dante was now alone in the garden…

**Zhalia's pov:**

Zhalia left the garden. She was troubled. On the one hand she wanted to stay on the other hand she just wanted to leave.

She knew it was wrong to lie to all those people that just wanted the best for her. If they would know who she was they would surely kick her out. But Dante had cared for her when she was injured in the night in which she had nearly killed his mentor, Zhalia thought. He seemed to like her. Sophie was ok, since Zhalia had rescued her she had been nice to her and Lok was just naive, he liked everyone.

She hated it to be Zhalia Moon, but it was so easy to be Kayla Evans. She could be someone completely new and she could try to start a new life. Maybe that was the chance for which she had waited so long. Zhalia decided that she would stay under one condition: No one could ever know the truth about who she really is…

**Hey guys…**

**Ok, I know. That wasn't very exciting, but I promise that I'll make a better chapter next time…**

**If you want to know what happens next, review… **

**Please…^^**

**Yours MissLaboe…**


	10. A spark of hope

**Chapter nine:**

**Zhalia's pov:**

Zhalia had stayed at the Foundation's basis for about two months now. She liked it there. To her it felt like a home now. She had never thought about the Organization in that way. It had always been more work, than home although she had lived there for so many years. Even if she didn't want it to be, she was sometimes reminded of her family. She didn't like that, because she knew that if anyone would fill the black hole in her heart, she would be vulnerable. Vulnerable, like she had been years ago as Klaus found her.

Because of that she was trying to deflect herself. She was sometimes training with Lok and sometimes with Dante. While she was fighting she wasn't able to see her combatant as a friend. While she was fighting she thought tactically. Although fighting with Lok couldn't be called `training´. Not for Lok and definitely not for her. Lok was lying half of the time on the ground and she was getting boring. It was just so easy to annoy him. He always got angry after losing the 15th training battle. Although he was very motivated.

Training with Dante was much more exiting, but it never ended. It looked like they were both on the same level. The rest of the time she was trying to avoid the others. Sometimes she was talking to Dante and it just felt good to talk with someone who really listened. She thought about Dante's offer to join the Foundation and to work for the Foundation. She thought about working as a profiler and fighter. She had always been good in estimating people and the Foundation needed everyone who was able to help. The Organization was making the Foundation hard times. Lok had received a letter from his mother. She and her sister would stay at another of the Foundation's outposts. Lok wasn't very happy about it. He was trying to convince Dante to go there. He missed his sister and he wanted to protect his family. Everyone knew that it wouldn't take long until the Foundation had to act. The Organization was terrorizing the country.

In this moment Zhalia was training with Lok. She had decided to make it easier for Lok so she had put on a blindfold. Everything was quiet. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Lok was a right hander so he would attack from the right side. He was small so he would try to avoid her moves. Suddenly she heard him breathing. He was starting to run. His footsteps were getting louder so he was about 15 metre away. He would need some seconds until he was near. She waited. After some seconds she felt an air draught. She ducked and kicked him. She heard him falling on the ground. She sighed annoyed and took of the blindfold.

`You'll never make it´, she said. He was lying on the ground, slowly he sat up.

`Oh man, my back hurts like hell´, he said.

`I know you should stop. You better train with Dante, he's nicer than me. Why do you even want to train with me, you should know by now that you can't win, it's getting boring´, she answered

Lok suddenly looked sad. `I want to be as good as my dad. He was a Foundation member too. You know, everyone always tells me: One day you'll be just as good as Eathon. But sometimes I just think I can't make it, he answered. Zhalia stood still.

She turned around and looked at him stunned. It couldn't be.

`What's your surname Lok´, she asked shortly.

`Lambert, why´, he answered a bit puzzled.

`No´, Zhalia said.

She left Lok without a word. She couldn't believe it. She had lived about months in the same house with Lok and she didn't realize that she killed his father. She went through the empty corridors. Suddenly she felt dizzy again. Breathing started to get heavy. She didn't have such an attack of remorse since her first day here. She tried to go on but it was difficult for her to go straight to her room. She felt weak again and it felt like she would collapse. She remembered the scene clearly.

She had waited for him in that night. He was on his way home from a mission. He had been weak. First he was fighting but soon he hadn't been strong enough anymore. He had tried to talk with her about the whole thing. She had never understood what he had asked in that night. `Who did this to you´, he had asked. And suddenly she understood. He had been the only one who had seen that she was just a weapon. He just saw a little girl that was acting strange and that was working for the Organization. He had understood that there had to be someone who was controlling her. And she had killed the one person who knew that this assassin wasn't her. The assassin was now a part of her but that part was no more controlling her.

Zhalia felt ill by now. She knew she wouldn't make it to her room. She opened the door to the habitable room. The room was empty. She entered the room and closed the door behind her. She tried to not think about it and leaned against the wall. She couldn't forget about it. About what she had done to Lok and his family. Eathon Labert's picture, she couldn't get it out of her brain. She closed her eyes, she didn't want to see it anymore. Zhalia didn't realize that she was sinking on the ground. Tears had started to escape her eyes. She felt like she was suffocating… After some minutes she was able to breath calm again. She stood up and realized that she was still weak. She didn't know why but those attacks were hurting her more than a real fight ever did. She sat down on an armchair.

Suddenly the door opened. Zhalia jumped in her armchair.

`But how can that be. It would seal the world's destiny. Are you sure about that Metz´, Dante was asking while he entered the room with Metz, right behind them little Miss Casterwill and Lok.

`Dante, I'm sure about that. Guggenheim received those news from a talented and trustworthy seeker´, Metz answered calm. `We have to do something, you have to do something Dante´, Metz said.

`I can't do anything against mortally magic. If the Organization has confederate with the Blood Spiral, I'm useless´, Dante said.

Zhalia closed her eyes. She let her hair fall into her face. It couldn't be. Now everything was hopeless. The Organization had used their most dangerous weapon. The Blood Spiral, a group of Nekromants that were using black magic to stay alive. They were soul collectors. Everyone who died became part of another world. Finally the Organization must have convinced them to follow them. She sighed. It couldn't be much worse.

`But who is the Blood Spiral´, Lok asked.

`The Blood Spiral are…´, Dante answered but he was cut off by Zhalia.

`Black Magicians´, Zhalia said coldly. `They are collecting the souls of everyone who dies on earth. They use black magic as their weapon that makes it nearly impossible to kill them. If you die you go to another world and that's a long and difficult journey. The Blood Spiral haunts those souls that haven't found the other world yet. They use them to stay alive and have control over them´.

`How did you get those information´, Metz asked. `Normally the Foundation and the Organization are the only ones who know about them´.

`That's not important. The one thing that is important is that the whole world will be destroyed if they are helping the Organization. If the Organization has control about the dead than we will soon be history´, she said shortly. Zhalia felt that everyone in the room was looking at her.

`Our time is running out´, she said.

On the same day the arrangements for a long journey were made. Dante had decided to choose a team. He would try to fight the worst off although they didn't really have a chance. The Foundation was out of people. There weren't many good seekers left. Because of the Organization many Seekers had been killed in the last years. And now a group of black magicians would help the Organization.

Zhalia had always known about the Blood Spiral. Klaus had once told her that Rasimov was one of them and that he was trying to convince the others to join him. She had always thought that Rasimov was kind of creepy. No one in the Huntik Foundation was really sure what would await them, Zhalia was sure about that. They didn't have the Information she had. She knew what would await them. The Blood Spiral was able to manipulate people, to use their memories and powers against them. She had heard about people that had lost their soul to them, their identity. They could use dead bodies to turn into their attendants, into their guards. The only chance to defeat them was to kill them: Rasimov the master of curses, Shauna the mistress of blood magic and Wind the master of death magic. Zhalia knew that the Foundation would have to make sacrifices.

**Hey guys…**

**It's been a long time since I uploaded my last chapters. I needed some time to find new ideas for the plot. I hope that I made clear what I want the Blood Spiral to be… If you have any questions just ask me… Please review and tell me what you think about my idea… I hope you like it…**

**Yours MissLaboe… **


	11. The hunt begins

**Chapter ten:**

**Zhalia's pov:**

It was four 'o clock in the morning. The weather had changed, the wind was cold and the clouds were hiding the moon. The streets were empty and everything was silent. Zhalia looked at Sophie who rode next to her. Sophie looked a last time at the Foundation's basis' silhouettes. They had taken off this morning although they didn't know much about the Blood Spiral. Of cause they knew about their powers and history but they didn't know where to search for them. In the Legends the only way to find them was to find the secret gateway to their world.

And there was the problem. Zhalia didn't understand how Dante could be so full of hope. Those gateways had never been found. They were secretly hidden somewhere where no one would find or suggest them. Probably they didn't even exist. And then there was the aspect that they couldn't ask anyone. To be honest who would want to find the Blood Spiral.

First: No one really believed in the Blood Spiral. Second: People only knew some legends about it. Third: Who is that tired of life or only stupid enough to search for someone who would definitely kill him or her? But no, Dante didn't listen to her. Now Zhalia remembered why she hated people that were so brave that they were already naive. He was just so stubborn.

And then there was Lok. He reminded Zhalia of dog. If Dante would say 'run',Lok would run. If Dante would say 'sit', Lok would sit. If Dante would jump off a cliff, Lok would also jump off a cliff.

And our little princess wasn't much better. 'Zhalia, you didn't really believe that I'd sleep in a tent. You know, my back is very sensitive. My back would hurt like hell if I'd sleep in a tent. And the ground is so cold. It's winter by now, yesterday it snowed again. The winter here is very cold and dangerous. I'll get a cold. Maybe it would be better if we'd go by carriage. It's much more comfortable than going by horse'. Zhalia hadn't been able to answer her. She had just looked at Sophie in disbelieve. In her mind she had banged Sophie's head a thousand times against the table leaf.

'Where did I get myself into', Zhalia whispered, 'on a journey with a too naive Dante, the too naive Dante's miniature and a little princess'. Sophie glared at her and Zhalia rolled her eyes.

If everything turned out well they would be at the Great Forest before dawn. After that days of wandering would follow. The woods were big and not easy to pass. Many challenges would await them…

**In the Evening, sunset: **

The four stood before the Forest. It had started snowing in the afternoon. The trees were covered with snow by now and the ground was slick because of the ice. The air was icily.

`Ok, before we go in there`, Dante said, `I want you to know that there is no way back after entering the forest. If one of you wants to leave and go back, that's your chance now. It will be a long and dangerous journey. As soon as the Organization knows about our plan, they will send their people after us. But the Organization will be our smallest concern in here. Here in the woods there are creatures that even the Organization is afraid of´. Dante looked the other three. Sophie looked at Lok who looked at the ground. Zhalia looked straight at Dante.

`I don't think anyone has got to say anything here, Dante. You miniature is doing what you do, as always and the princess is doing what your miniature does, as always´, Zhalia said. Dante looked like he was trying to prevent a smile and Sophie was getting angry.

`Oh and why are you here. Tell us why you're here´, she said. She looked at Dante and then she looked at Zhalia again with a meaningful grin.

`I am here because you three would be lost without me. And don't forget that there has to be someone who rescues you´, she answered.

Sophie wanted to counter but Dante cut her off. `Ok, if the two beauties would stop now please´, he said with a smile. He entered the forest line.

`Being noble doesn't make her beautiful Dante´, Zhalia smiled while she followed him.

As soon as they had entered the forest line everything became dark. If Zhalia hadn't seen the sunset a minute ago she wouldn't have been able to decide if it was whether night or day. Dante had inflamed a lantern, so did the other three. The forest was imposing. Zhalia wasn't able to see the tree tops. All she knew was that they completely covered the heaven. Sometimes the roots were so big that Zhalia wasn't able to overlook them. Sometimes there were flowers, funguses or tendrils that were glowing in the dark. Zhalia had to admit that they looked beautiful.

Zhalia took her gloves out of her bag. It was cold, icy cold. And Zhalia felt like she was being watched. She wanted to take out her daggers. It felt safer with weapons in her hands. But there were no daggers anymore. Of cause there weren't. She had left her daggers at the Foundation's basis. Well, she didn't really leave them there. She had buried them in the garden. She had been sure that Dante and Metz would have recognized them. Who wouldn't recognize the daggers that had nearly killed you? It wasn't easy. The daggers had been the last thing that her brother had left her.

She looked over her shoulder. Sophie and Lok were talking about their childish stuff while Sophie was trying to hide that she had a crush on him. She walked up to Dante.

`I want a weapon´, she said while walking next to him.

He looked at her with a vicious grin. `I'm not so sure about that. To be honest, I think you finger nails are weapon enough´, he said. He held up his hand and Zhalia was still able to see the five little scars. Like the scar at her eye they would stay forever.

`I think it would be a disaster if I'd try to kill the Blood Spiral with my finger nails´, Zhalia answered.

`Yes but maybe they`ll help you´, he said. He took out a casket and gave it to her. Than went on. Zhalia stood there and looked down at the casket in her hand. She opened the casket and took out two daggers. The grip was out of silver and was decorated by a black stone. Zhalia couldn't believe that he had bought them for her.

Suddenly she heard something cracking behind her in the woods. She turned around but there was nothing. Only darkness. She made sure that Sophie, Lok and Dante were distracted than she left the path. As soon as she had left the path she was surrounded by trees. She heard something moving. Somewhere in the coppice.

Suddenly she saw dust appearing and somewhere in the dust she was able to see something or someone kneeling on the ground. She approached the figure and was soon shrouded in the fog. Now she was able to see the figure clearly. It was a man. He was tall and he had brown hair. Something was strange about this man. And then she saw that he leaned over a body. Abruptly The man looked up to her. In that moment Zhalia knew what was wrong with him. His face was fully decayed, his eyeholes were empty. The man, in that moment Zhalia didn't find another fitting characterization, didn't seem to see her but. His face looked like he searched for something while he was standing up approaching her slowly. Zhalia looked down and was able to see the body. It was a young boy. Maybe a little bit younger than Lok and Sophie. His throat was sliced. Blood ran down his neck and formed a red see beneath him.

Zhalia knew that she had two options: She could run back to the others, which would probably lead the man to them. And she could try to help the boy and after that run away and lead the man away from the others. She decided that option two would be the better one. She approached the boy quietly. The man had no eyes anymore so he would count on his ability to hear. Zhalia kneeled down next to the boy. She tried to stop the bleeding but it made no sense.

Suddenly the boy opened his eyes and sat up. Zhalia was hustled to the ground. She could feel how her dress and coat were drenched in blood. The boy's finger's closed around her throat so she wasn't able to breath anymore. His fingers were wet because of all the blood. He looked into her eyes and she saw how his eyes turned dull. She kicked his knee and she heard a 'crack'. Zhalia broke free and stood up. She started running. She could hear that the two were following her although they were very slowly. Suddenly the fog appeared again, she wasn't able to see the ground anymore and she fell into the snow.

The next thing she saw was the creature standing in front of her but abruptly the man turned around and disappeared. After some seconds she could hear Lok, Sophie and Dante calling for her. Then she saw Dante and Sophie approaching her. They must have thought she was hurt. Well, who wouldn't think that if someone was lying on the ground with blood drenched clothes and a blood covered throat.

`Zhalia, are you hurt is everything alright´, Dante called while kneeling down next to her. Zhalia sat up. She put her hand to her throat because it still hurt. Behind Sophie Lok followed.

`Nothings alright´, she said, `there is a creature haunting in here. I thought I had heard something so I searched for a sign. And I caught the creature while killing a boy. I tried to help the boy until the boy tried to kill me. Those creatures are reanimated cadavers. I think they can't think for themselves they just kill´.

Dante helped her up. He looked her worriedly over.

Then he said, `Ok, we'll rest here for the night. Zhalia you go and change clothes. You'll get a cold and your clothes are drenched with blood´.

`You know Dante I'm not as sensitive as Sophie is. I can survive a cold´, Zhalia said but as soon as the tents were build up she changed her clothes and cleaned her neck from all the blood. In the small mirror which she had took with her, she saw that her neck was covered with blue fingertips and marks that accrued red and blue.

**Dante's pov:**

Dante sat in his tent. He had to calm down. He couldn't get the picture out of his head. Kayla lying in the snow, her clothes drenched with blood and blood running down her throat. Somehow it had reminded him of Zhalia Moon, lying on the Foundation's basis floor covered with blood. He shook his head. He had to forget Zhalia. She was dead and she wouldn't come back.

'You're a fool Dante Vale', he thought, 'you didn't even know this woman'. If he was with Kayla it was easier to not think about Zhalia. But to be honest he couldn't assess her. Sometimes she was cold and denying. And then there were moments where she seemed to be happy to have someone to talk to. But he never managed to break her facade.

She never talked about herself or her life before she came to the Foundation. Dante often wondered where she had learned to fight. Sometimes it seemed like her the intention of fighting was killing. She used tricks he had never seen before. She had a mystery, Dante knew that. He had never met a woman like her. Dante forced himself to not think of Zhalia. She didn't count, he didn't really know her.

The women he met were more like Sophie. They were handsome and if they fought, they were easy to defeat. Sometimes he had trained with female Seekers but they were nothing like Kayla. Of cause some of them were self-assured too but compared to Kayla that was nothing.

Dante had to smile as he thought about Sophie and Kayla. They couldn't be more different. Dante remembered the evening on which they had all sat in the Foundation's basis kitchen. Sophie had stopped eating and had looked right at Kayla. Probably Sophie had just wanted to be nice but Dante could have told her that it was a bad idea to ask Kayla if she needed help with covering up the scar at her left eye.

`Not everyone has to be good looking to get respect and attention Sophie. Only the nobility has to cover things up´, Kayla had answered. Sophie hadn't talked to her for a whole week. Yes it was indeed funny to see Kayla and Sophie arguing.

Dante left his tent late in the evening. He couldn't sleep. The campfire was still glowing but he noticed that Sophie and Lok had already gone to bed. He looked across the camp. And then he saw her. Kayla was sitting aloof of the campfire. He approached her quietly.

`I guess you couldn't sleep too´, Dante said. Kayla looked over her shoulder. She looked tired but her eyes were alert.

`May I´, he asked and pointed at the ground next to her.

`Why not´, she answered. Dante sat down. They kept silent for a while.

Finally she said, `Someone had to keep watching. I don't think they'll attack, they're just two but you never know´. Dante looked at her. Then he noticed that her neck was covered with red and blue fingertips and marks.

`Did they do that to you´, he asked, pointing at her neck.

`Yes´, she said. He looked on the ground again. He felt bad because he hadn't been able to protect her.

`It's not as bad as it looks like. Our situation is more worse´, she looked at him gravely, `those cadavers are chasers. Yes, they can't see any more but they count on their hearing and that makes them even more dangerous. They'll find new victims and we're trapped here. We need about weeks to pass the forest and for this time we're the booty. We can never be sure. Those cadavers are uninhibited, they don't feel any more´.

`You said they were only here to kill us´, Dante asked.

`Yes, the Organization knows what we are up to. This is only a foretaste of what will await us´, she answered.

`I'm sure we'll somehow make it. And then we'll come home and we'll go on with our further life´, Dante put a strand of her hair out of her face. She only looked at him.

`I have nothing to lose anymore. But Lok, Sophie and you, you still have a life to which you can return when this is all over. You should be careful´, She said, her eyes expressionless as always.

**Someone else's pov:**

The boy stood in the coppice. He wasn't able to see but could feel the four person's presence. Two of them were sleeping. The other two sat somewhere near the others. They boy could hear them talking. He remembered one of the voices.

A woman, the same woman that he had nearly killed this day. HE breathed rattling in and out. He would haunt them. She would not escape again. None of them would escape. He would always be near. The two wouldn't sit and talk so calm if they'd know that he was standing no more than ten metres away….

**Hey guys…**

**Uuuuuh, another chapter… I hope you like it, it's a little bit spooky…. But I like stuff like that…. Thanks for all the reviews… It's always great to read what you're thinking about my story…:D**

**Please review, I want to know what you think about it…;D**

**Have fun…**

**Yours MissLaboe…**


	12. A trap that will change everything

**Chapter eleven:**

**Dante's pov:**

Dante had stood sentinel over the camp for the whole night. He had talked with Kayla through the whole night until she had fallen asleep with her head leaning on his shoulder. He was happy that she finally felt safe otherwise she would have never fallen asleep. It felt good to have her by his side.

Suddenly her face became fearful. Her hands were clenched to a fist and she started shaking. She whispered things which he couldn't understand. Her head slipped of his shoulder and Dante barely managed to catch her. He saw tears escaping her eyes while she was gasping as if she wasn't able to breath. Dante held her head in his hands. He called her name more then only one time. He felt disabled because she didn't wake up.

**Zhalia's pov:**

Suddenly her dream changed. . And something felt strange, something wasn't right. Slowly she went through the house. She was surprised as she saw that in her parents' room was still light shining.

She was happy that they were still awake. As she opened the door without knocking she only saw how her mothers' body was slipping on the ground. Her eyes grew wide, full of horror. She became pale. She didn't want to look down. Because she knew what she would see there. And she didn't want to see her brothers' corpse full of blood. Now she remembered what her mother had said to her in her dream:

``Go Zhalia, run! Forget about me´´.

Without thinking Zhalia kneeled down beside her brother and kissed his forehead as she softly extracted the daggers from his cold dead hands. She looked at her mother and slowly closed her eyes. And she knew, she would never ever see those eyes again.

Zhalia jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder. But as she turned around she saw her father. His face was no more full of happiness, no it was filled with sorrow. And the fear made a terrible mask out of his face. Zhalia felt a spark of hope as she saw him.

`` Zhalia my dear, we have to go! Don't waste time, they'll come back for…´´

His voice broke as a stream of blood trickled out of his mouth and nose.

And now Zhalia could see how a Blade was drilling through his stomachs flesh. Her father sank on his knees and fell limb to the ground. That was the moment when her feelings exploded. She now saw a man who was standing in front of her a bloody blade in his hands and a grin on his face.

She heard someone calling her name...

**Dante's pov:**

Suddenly she opened her eyes. They were still filled with tears but there was something else. For the first time, since he knew her, her eyes weren't cold. They were filled with sorrow which was nearly more painful for him, than seeing her expressionless.

`Kayla, what happened´, he asked, `you were crying, what happened´. She looked at him, her eyes bright. She sat up. Her hands were still clenched to a fist. He took her shaking hand.

`It was just a dream´, she said, her voice shaking. Even now she didn't break her facade.

`Kayla, I know that you don't like talking about yourself but we're a team and we have to trust each other. And I need to know what happened to you. It's not normal that you always hide yourself´, Dante said.

She closed her eyes as if she head to gather all of her strength.

`I was seven when I lost my family. They were killed by the Organization. Since that day I made terrible mistakes. I worked for people who made me think they'd care for me. But they only cared for my powers. I have always been a good fighter but in those years I turned into someone else. I wasn't able to feel anything and I'm still not able to. I did terrible things. And now years later I understand what I did´, she said all this as if she had never spoken to anyone about it. Her hands relaxed in his.

`No one cares about who you were. It is important who you are now´, he tried to calm her down.

`I think some people would care´, she answered.

First Dante didn't know what to say. He only knew that he didn't care. He liked Kayla for who she was now. And her past made her to who she was now. He had been raised to give people a chance to earn trust. He and Metz even wanted to give Zhalia a chance. But then everything had ended out different. She had died, she hadn't been able to use the chance she was given.

`You know, I once met a woman and she was as lost in her past as you are now. She killed people too, she killed Foundation members, even tried to kill Metz. But in the end she wasn't able to, because she remembered who she really was. We gave her a second chance, I gave her that chance because I cared for her and I saw how damaged this woman was. She didn't know what she was doing. But she wasn't able to use that chance because she died. I really cared for her. You somehow remind me off her. And I don't want you to end like her. I can't help her anymore but you have that chance too´, with those words he stood up. He wanted to give her the time to think about his words…

**Zhalia's pov: **

He stood up and left her alone with his words. Zhalia couldn't believe what he had just told her. She would have never imagined that he would have care for her. That someone would care for her. She looked down on her hand which he had held just a minute ago…

Some hours later they took off. The weather was disastrous. It was still snowing and it was colder than ever before. Lok and Sophie hadn't understood that they should be quiet. But no, there's a dead, professional killers after us, why should we be quiet? Sometimes Zhalia wanted to know what they were thinking. The paths were no more easy to pass. Stumps and brushwood were blocking them. If someone wanted to follow them it would be easy. None of the group would see them in this state of area. Zhalia was nervous, she didn't know if it was because of Dante or the danger in these woods…

**Third person narrator: **

`You said you found them´, the green haired woman said. She looked down at the man who was kneeling in front of her. He was one of her new experiments. You take a corpse, than you curse the corpse. And 'tadaaa', there you have a dead attendant who does everything you want…

`Yes my mistress, they are in the woods´, the attendant said. Shauna looked at Rasimov.

`I want you to bring me something. Something that proves that you found them´, Rasimov said with his dark voice.

`As you wish my lord´, the man said. Then he disbanded into black fog.

`I want to know with whom I am dealing´, Rasimov told his sister with an evil grin.

`It's always better to know your enemies´.

**Zhalia's pov: **

It was nearly lunchtime. The whole team knew that. How could they forget it, Lok reminded them every ten minutes that he was hungry. So they decided to rest soon. Maybe one or two last kilometres then they would try to find a place to rest. Lok was walking on top of the group with Dante while Sophie was walking next to Zhalia.

`Guys, there is someone´, Lok yelled. Zhalia and Sophie caught up with them. Now the four were able to see a girl lying on the ground maybe fifteen metres away. She was about five years old, she was pale and she had brown hair. She was wore a white dress. The dress was painted red at her stomach. She was bleeding heavily. She wouldn't make it much longer.

`She's wounded, we have to help her´, Sophie said. She wanted to approach the girl but Zhalia detered her from helping the girl.

`Wait, I've seen this before´, she said, `it's a trap. We can't help her anymore´.

`No, I have to help her. Look at her. She's so young´, Sophie cried. Suddenly the girl opened her eyes. The team was now no more than five metres away from her. She had blue eyes and she was crying.

`Please, help me. You have to help me´, she cried. Suddenly Sophie started to run.

`No´, Dante called but it was too late. The two men were attacking them. They came out of the woods.

Zhalia ran after Sophie. If Sophie would touch try to help the girl she would attack her like the boy attacked Zhalia last night. Zhalia was grabbing Sophie while Dante and Lok fought the other two. Sophie defended herself against Zhalia. She tried to break free. Zhalia had a hard time to hold her back.

`Let me go, I have to help her. Maybe you can watch her dying but I can't´, Sophie screamed.

`Sophie, you don't know what you're doing. She is no more human´, Zhalia called.

Sophie started to kick and beat her. Zhalia felt how Sophie's fist hit her mouth.

`She's dying, don't you understand that´.

Zhalia pinned Sophie on the ground. Zhalia saw Dante cutting the dead boy's head. The boy fell to the ground, he didn't move anymore. He was defeated. The other man still fought with Lok. Suddenly something moved behind Zhalia and Sophie. The girl had stood up. She was approaching the girls. Zhalia stood up and dragged Sophie behind her. But the girl didn't attack. She only kneeled down where Sophie and Zhalia had lain just a minute ago. Then she disappeared, the only thing she left was black fog.

Zhalia turned around. The other man had also disappeared. She looked down at Sophie who was crying silently.

`See what you did´, Zhalia said, `but no, you couldn't listen to me. You could have killed us all´.

Lok sat down on the ground. He was exhausted. It had been his first real fight.

`Are you alright´, Dante asked.

`Yes, we're unharmed. Why did they disappear´, Zhalia asked.

`I don't know. They just did´, Dante said. Sophie stood up, she was still crying.

`Listen, I'm sorry. I just wanted to help her. I didn't know what I was doing´, she said quietly. She looked at her team mates. Lok stood up and put his arm around her shoulders.

`It's ok Soph´, he looked at Dante, `isn't it Dante´, he asked.

`Yes, for now. But next time you better listen before you risk anything´, Dante said, `We'll rest here for the night´.

In the evening they sat outside their tents. Sophie leaned against Lok. Zhalia sat with her back against a tree and Dante stood next to her also leaning against the tree.

Then Lok broke the silence, `The training was nothing against fighting this guy´.

Dante smiled, `That's what I always told you. The training can prepare you but it's always something else to fight against a real predator. But you did a good job. Not everyone would have handled the situation that good´. Zhalia had never seen Lok that proud. She wanted to take out her gloves, because she was cold. But as she looked down on her hands she realized that something was wrong. Something was missing. And then she knew it. Her mother's ring was gone. Zhalia became erratic. It had been the last thing she had from her family. How could she loose the last memory of her mother.

`Is everything alright´, asked Dante.

`Yes, yes. I just lost something´, answered Zhalia. She was distraught. She stood up and went back to the place where the fight had taken place. She kneeled down but she couldn't find the ring.

`What are you searching for´, Dante had followed her. It was hopeless, the ring wasn't there. She must have lost the ring somewhere else. She sat down.

`I lost my mother's ring but that's not important anymore. I won't find the ring anymore´, she said.

`You should come back to the camp´, he said. Then he held out his hand. She looked at him and finally took his hand. He helped her up with a smile. And while they were going back to the camp he held on to her hand…

**Third person narrator:**

`My lord, I have something that proves that we found the right people´, the dead attendant told Rasimmov. He gave his lord a ring. Rasimmov looked at the ring. He had seen the ring before. And suddenly he remembered the girl. He hadn't seen her very often. Klaus had called her 'his daughter'. And 'his daughter' had finally killed him. The last time he saw her she had been about fifteen or sixteen years old. She had worn this ring. She had always worn this ring. But she was dead, it couldn't be. He had seen her corpse. Burned under houses ruins. And then he knew it. The corpse hadn't been her corpse. She had tricked them and she was still alive. She had joined the Foundation. She was a traitor.

`What do you know about the woman who wore this ring´, he asked.

`She's a good fighter. She spends much of her time with this man. They call him Dante. Her name is Kayla´, the dead attendant answered.

`No, her name isn't Kayla. Her name is Zhalia Moon. We'll show them what we can. No one can play with the Blood Spiral. We'll destroy her little, nice, new life´…

**Hey guys…**

**I hope you like it… C:**

**Please review and tell me what you think…**

**Greetings, **

**Yours MissLaboe… **


	13. Underwater

**Chapter twelve:**

**Zhalia's pov:**

After some days of walking they had finally reached the end of the great forest. Zhalia was worried they hadn't been attacked the past days. There had been no sign of anyone following them.

The landscape that awaited them after their long journey through the wood was somehow breathtaking. They were in a dale, surrounded by mountains and cliffs. There were fields and rivers. Everything seemed so unreal after the never ending darkness of the forest.

The country didn't seem to be inhabited. Only some people had survived the trip through the forest and they were hiding. The gateways to the underworld couldn't be far away. They had to be somewhere where no one would find them, so they would be in the mountains.

The landscape changed the higher they got. There were no more fields and trees but rocks and deeps. The group stopped at a mountain lake.

Dante sat on a ledge planning the new route.

Zhalia was sitting at the bank border while Lok and Sophie were training. Zhalia looked over the lake. It was from a dark blue colour and the water was icy. It made a quiet swash as the stone which she had thrown met the surface. Zhalia had always liked swimming but she knew that too much water would make the red colour drain from her hair.

Suddenly it made a loud 'splash' and Lok fell into the water. Zhalia rolled her eyes annoyed.

"Looks like I won". Sophie said laughing. Lok laughed too, although he looked like drowned rat.

"Ey that wasn't fair. I wa…".

Suddenly Lok was dragged underwater. He tried to break free but something was dragging him down. Sophie started crying and screaming.

"Kayla, we have to help him. He's drowning", she screamed.

Zhalia stood up she had never seen something like that. She needed to help him or he would drown and Dante wasn't here to help him.

And of cause little Miss Casterwill didn't even get her toe into the icy water. Without thinking she jumped into the water. Her skin hurt because of the water's temperature. Her body felt numb. She knew that she would freeze if she wouldn't move.

She dove deeper and deeper. And as she saw Lok, she knew what had pulled him underwater. A climbing plant had closed its grip around Lok's throat. He was fighting for his life but he wasn't able to escape. He got weaker and weaker. Zhalia took out her daggers and cut him free.

Lok was numb so she took his arm and dragged him with her. It couldn't take long until they'd reach the surface. She felt numb, she needed to breath. She didn't know how long she had been underwater. And she didn't care, all that mattered was that she would be able to breath again. The water began to lighten up they would reach the surface soon.

Suddenly something caught her ankle and pulled her back. Zhalia tried to break free but she wasn't able to. She let go of Lok, he would be able to reach the surface alone. He was save while she was being pulled back, deeper and deeper. The plants grip caught her wrists.

Her sight got blurred and she felt how water entered her mouth. Her body was completely numb and her head felt like it was filled with fog. And she let go. Why should she fight against her destiny? A silent death, underwater, somewhere where no one would find her.

But who would have searched for her anyways..? Now the one thought, she had always tried to hold back, entered her mind's surface. He would search for her, wouldn't he…?

He had told her that he'd care for her. He had feelings for her, even if he didn't know who she really was. The darkness had now finally surrounded her. She would find peace on a lakes bottom, with him on her mind…

**Dante's pov:**

Dante was sitting on a ledge studying maps and notations. The portal couldn't be far away. He could feel dark power arising from those mountains. Suddenly he heard someone screaming. He stood up and was able to see Sophie approaching him with a panicked gaze.

"Dante! You have to help me. Lok fell into the lake and nearly drowned, Kayla rescued him and now she isn't going up again" she cried. Dante started running, he heard Sophie calling something about a plant, but honestly he didn't really care.

He had already reached the lake. Lok was sitting on the ground like a drowned rat while there was no sign of Kayla. Dante's eyes searched for a sign of the female seeker but they didn't discover anything.

Without thinking he jumped into lake. But he couldn't find her. He got panicked, fear overtook his mind. Kayla had become an important part of his life. Suddenly a figure appeared in front of him. It was her.

The picture of her floating lifeless in the water hit him with full force. He saw the plant and finally what Sophie had tried to tell him made sense. He cut her free and held her close to him as he appeared at the lake's surface. He carried her to the bank border and lay her down.

He was able to feel a weak pulse and the feeling of hope overcame him. Suddenly he recognized that she was lying in a lake of blood. He tried to find her injuries but he didn't find any of them. Than he realized that the source of the red fluid was her hair. The water that was draining from her hair took a red colour with it. And finally he realized who was lying in front of him.

However Dante didn't have time to think about it. Zhalia's pulse was getting weaker and weaker.

"Zhalia, Zhalia, stay with me" he called" Listen to me, I know you can make it". He tried to wake her up but nothing worked until her pulse completely fainted.

"No, Zhalia, stay with me, please. I need you" Dante felt tears running down his cheeks. There was only one chance left. Filled with sorrow and fear Dante tried the last thing to rescue her: The kiss of life…

But nothing worked, Dante felt like he had failed. He had failed in protecting her. He hadn't just lost Zhalia. The second time in his life he had lost the one person who really meant something to him.

"Zhalia, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for letting you die, for not realizing who you were" he said under tears. He embraced her dead body and kissed her forehead…

Suddenly the woman in his arms moved. Dante couldn't believe his eyes when she coughed a few times.

She opened her eyes slightly. She looked pale and exhausted.

"Actually, I had a different idea of our first kiss… Believe me it was definitely not the kiss of life" she said with a croaky voice. Even on the brink of death she didn't abstain from being tough and sarcastic.

"Don't ever do that to me again, Miss Moon" he said before he kissed her gently…

**Check..:D **

**I really have to say: That chapter was a challenge… Please tell me if I stood up to it..:D**

**Please, please, please review, because I'm really not sure about this chapter…**

**A great "Thank you" to: Startime101, PiaNoir and JaneEyre0… Thank you guys, I hope you like this one…**

**Greetings…**

**Yours MissLaboe….:D**


	14. The portal

**Chapter thirteen:**

**Dante's pov:**

The night had come. Lok had recovered from his shock and Sophie was sitting next to him watching the lake. He had talked to them about the whole Zhalia-Kayla-thing. They didn't know about the whole Metz-thing and they didn't know about Zhalia's past. He had told them that she was being haunted by the Organization and that she that for had changed her identity. And that fitted to what Sophie knew about her. Sophie and Lok had both agreed to call her Zhalia and to do as if nothing had changed.

The nights were cold in the mountains. Dante sat on the ledge again and thought about Zhalia and about what had happened today. He needed some time off of the teenagers.

It had been one of the most beautiful and worst days in his life. First he had lost her and then he had found her. And not only her. He had found Zhalia. He still couldn't believe how he could have not noticed her all the time.

`Dante´ someone behind him said. He looked over his shoulder and a smile rose on his face. He couldn't deny that he was happy to see her. He also didn't think it was good for her to be alone. She had already spent too much of her life alone.

The female seeker sat down beside him. They remained silent for a while, looking up to the stars.

`I talked with them about you. They'll accept you and they don't have a problem with it. For them it's only you're name that changed´ he finally said.

`Why do you do this?´ she asked with her chocolate brown eyes looking right at him `I mean you should hate me. I tried to kill your mentor and I lied to you. How can you forgive me?´

`I don't know. I think that's what they call love´ he said with a small smile as he saw her blushing.

It looked like this topic made her somehow uneasy. Maybe he would have felt the same a day ago, but today he had nearly lost her and he didn't want to waste any more time. He didn't want to lose her again, not after he had barely found her again.

`When I was down there, waiting for the death to take me, I was thinking about you. I wasn't sad, because I was afraid to die, I was sad because I didn't have the chance to tell you how I feel about you´ she said with her eyes lifted on her hands.

He looked down on her hands too and saw that she was shivering. He took her hands in his. She looked up to him and smiled shy, her hands relaxed in his. Then he noticed blue and red bruises around her wrists where the killer plant had held her. He rolled up her sleeves to check the bruises but she tried to hide them

Her hair fell into her face and covered her eyes as she looked down. He put his hand under her chin and lifted her head so she had to look at him. Her eyes were glassy and she looked sad.

`What is it?´ he asked with anxiety in his voice `What are you thinking about?´

`Those bruises remind me of being defenceless. I am not used to not having a chance to protect myself. But this time I was extradited to death. There was nothing I could have done. I was just so hopeless and despaired. And in that moment I gave up and you have to know that I normally never give up´.

She tried to avoid his gaze but he could see that her eyes filled with tears.

**Zhalia's pov:**

Finally she had told him what she had wanted to hide. Her fear and her despair was something she didn't want to be alone with. But when she felt his arms wrapping around her and lifting her up on his lap like a little child, she knew that she was no more alone with it. He was with her and would help her, so she could find her place in this world. Everything she knew now was that her place was with him.

`Don't think about that anymore, you are such a strong person. And that's what I love about you. You don't do what you're told you have your own opinion. And even if you don't see your beauty, I see it, every time I look at you´ Dante whispered as he kissed her forehead.

`Thank you´ she smiled a little at his words. That was typical for him. Gentleman-like and absolutely handsome and charming.

But she was no more able to tell him because she drifted into sleep. Her head fell against his chest.

**Next day, third-person-narrator:**

Zhalia slept very well in this night. Well, honestly how couldn't she with Dante at her side? In the early morning the team had reached the entry of a mine shaft. It was a dark hole waiting for them to explore its depth.

`So how are we going to get down there?´ asked Lok with a puzzled look. Sophie threw a stone into the mine shaft, the team didn't hear it bounce on the shafts ground.

`Well, if the portal is down there the blood spiral would want to fright people off. So they force them to do something they'd never do´ Dante answered. Zhalia started smiling, she knew what he meant.

`And what would that be?´ Lok still didn't understand it. Zhalia and Dante looked at him with lifted eyebrows.

`Lok, you aren't that dull, are you?´ Zhalia said. Lok looked down the mine shaft and then he looked at her again. His eyes widened.

`Oh no, you don't want me to jump, don't you?´

`That's exactly what we want´ smiled Zhalia, she looked at Dante, who nodded, and gave Lok a push. He tried to keep his balance but finally he lost it and fell into the mine shaft. Zhalia followed him without thinking. Dante waited some seconds than he deferred to Sophie. When he was sure that she had reached the ground he followed his three companions

**Some minutes earlier:**

The adrenalin flew through her veins while Zhalia was falling deeper and deeper. Suddenly the downstream was stopped some centimeters before she would have normally hit the ground. She got to her feet and scanned the area.

`That wasn't nice´ she heard someone calling from behind. As she turned around she saw Lok leaning against a wall. He was shaking and paler than she had ever seen him before.

`If you ever, ever do something like that again´ he whispered. She lifted her eyebrow, amused of his reaction.

`Yes Lok, what would you do if I ever do something like that again?´ she said sniffy. She turned around again waiting for Dante to reach the ground. Suddenly Sophie reached the ground instead of Dante.

`Well I didn't expect you´ Zhalia said with an unimpressed mien. Sophie made a face and grinned at her.

`I'm sorry I can't make you as happy as he makes you´ she said with a naughty smile.

`What?´ Zhalia snapped. Her face only inches away from her companion's. Sophie seemed to enjoy the fact that she had found something that helped her to pick on Zhalia.

`Oh c'mon! Did you really think we wouldn't get, what's going on between you two? Looks like Dante is able to let Miss Frost's icebound heart melt´ she said with an evil smile. Zhalia opened her mouth to say something but the first time in her life no word escaped her lips.

`Everything's alright?´ a voice from behind Zhalia asked. Zhalia looked a last time at Sophie than she turned around to face Dante.

`Miss Casterwill just sealed her death´ she told him while walking past him entering a dark corridor, holding her daggers in her hands.

Dante gave Sophie an asking and puzzled look but she just smiled while Lok had to hold back his laughter.

The corridor looked like no one had ever entered it. It was a lithic alleyway, no lights, no signs of a human being. The only present thing was white fog. Flowing through the corridor the fog seemed to float in a certain direction. Sometimes it seemed like the fog formed faces but Zhalia didn't know if she was only imagining it.

`There's no natural draught down here. So normally the fog shouldn't follow a certain direction´ Dante said.

`So you mean: It lives?´ asked Sophie pointing at the fog.

`Not 'it' `said Zhalia ´This isn't fog. Those are people. Souls, who are on their way to the ghost world. After their journey through the ghost world they'll be able to enter a new world, a good world where they can live and wait for their loved ones to follow them´.

Suddenly Dante stood still. The alleyway was blocked by a wall, though the white dust was floating through the wall as if there wouldn't be a barrier.

`That's it. That's the portal´ Dante told the others. He kneeled down to find a secret path or something like that, but he didn't find anything. Sophie examined the wall too.

`Wait a minute. Those souls had to pay with their life, so they were allowed to enter. The portal wants us to pay with something too´ she called. Dante smiled at her

`Good work´.

He stepped forward and caught Zhalia's hand. His hand lasted in hers for some seconds. Then he took one of the daggers out of her grip. He cut a gash in his palm, so his team members were able to see blood drops running down his hand. He let the blood drop to the ground in front of the wall. First nothing seemed to happen but after some seconds the ground started shaking and a lime-green shiny rift appeared.

Dante smiled a victorious smile and reached with his sanely hand out for Zhalia's. But she took his injured hand instead and kissed the back of his hand. Then they walked hand in hand through the rift.

On the other side of the rift it was still dark, no one was there but they were able to hear an underground waterfall's noise.

Dante looked at her with amusement. She had his blood on her lips.

`What was that all about?´ he asked. She only snickered.

`I wanted to give Sophie something she could tattle about´ she answered with a devilish grin. Dante started laughing.

`Then let's give her more of it´ he said and kissed her passionately. She leaned in and enjoyed his smooth touch, her hand in his hair. That moment Sophie and Lok entered the rift. As soon as Lok saw them he looked at the ground and blushed. Sophie however made wide eyes, her mouth open.

`Oh my God, this is so cute and romantic´ she whispered with a squeaky voice as if she had seen a guinea pig. Dante and Zhalia broke apart and he wiped his blood from Zhalia's lips. He blinked at her for a last time before he turned around to Sophie.

`Excuse me, Sophie. Did you say something?´ he asked with an innocent look on his face.

Sophie, who still looked as if she wanted to cut capers, only shook her head and tried to keep herself from crowing .

**Finally made it..:D Honestly this chapter was a little bit difficult at the beginning But I think it ended in a good way..:D**

**Please review, tell me what you like and what you didn't like **

**Yours MissLaboe C: **


	15. A well known operative

**Chapter fourteen:**

**Third-person-narrator:**

`My dear, I am sure you still remember Dante Vale´, asked Rassimov while he was facing a woman's ghost.

`Yes, I think about him very often´, the woman's ghost said, her voice somehow sad. Rassimov smiled.

`My dear, I think you have been dead way too long. And I know about the feelings and plans you had for Dante Vale. What if I would allow you to enter the world of the living again´.

`Oh my god, that would be so wonderful. I can't thank you enough for this´, she cried tears of happiness and sank to the ground. Rassimov sighed annoyed.

`I'll ask the question in another way. What would you give me to enter the world of the living again´, he asked.

She just smiled in a childish way.

`I'd do everything you want from me. Just let me live again`, she said. Rassimov smiled, he had expected this reaction and now he could use her.

`Well my dear. Than I'm sure you remember your murderer right? The girl, who tricked you and killed you without even thinking. This girl is now in a relationship with Dante Vale. The guy you had always wanted to be with is now falling in love with the woman who killed you´, he told her, `All I want you to do, is spy on Dante Vale's team and maybe in the end I'll let you kill the woman who ended your life´.

`I will, my lord. I will. There's nothing I wouldn't do, to show Dante that I am the one for him´.

`Fine, than we have a deal´, Rassimov smirked and released Scarlett Byrne from death. As soon as she was gone he started laughing. 'Some women are just so naive', he thought.

**Third-person-narrator: **

Dante's Team had found a cave behind a waterfall, where they could set up camp. It was one of the places where no one would search for them or where no one would find them. The world of the dead wasn't a very comfortable place. It was always kind of cold and drizzly. Not a place where someone would want to wear dresses except Sophie. While Zhalia had changed into a black pair of trousers, knee-length boots, and a white blouse over which she wore a black corset, Sophie was still wearing her cream-coloured dress.

Since two days Sophie was whining about her getting a cold. This evening the team sat together in the cave.

`We still don't know where to find those Blood Spiral guys´, Lok said. Dante stood up and let go of Zhalia's hand which he had held.

`We'll search for them tomorrow. I'll be back soon. I just want to check that no one followed us´, with those words he left.

`Oh, I'm so cold. Why has it to be so cold here´, Sophie whined. Zhalia leaned against the wall, rolling her eyes annoyed.

`I wonder why you're so cold Oh wait, now I know, you're wearing a dress that is only qualified for riding with a unicorn through a summerlike field of flowers´, she annotated Sophie's behavior.

Sophie wanted to say something but Lok was faster.

`Zhalia, you don't seem to be cold. I'm sure Dante wouldn't mind sharing his blanket with you, so Sophie can have yours´, he noted.

`What's with Zhalia's blanket´, asked Dante who had just entered the cave again. He had missed the rest of what Lok had said. Lok grinned.

`Well Dante, Sophie's cold so I tho Aah, shit. What the ´, he called while rubbing his head. He looked on the ground and saw a stone that had hit his head, lying next to him. He turned to face Zhalia, who made it clear with her gesture, that she would make him die a slow and painfull death, if he told Dante what he had said.

`What was that for´, asked Dante, `What did he say´.

`Nothing you should be interested in´, Zhalia only said, `right Lok ´. Lok saw her taking another stone and said hastily `Yes, it was nothing important´.

With that the team went to bed not knowing what would await them tomorrow

**Third-person-narrator:**

The team had traveled the whole day through a dead landscape. Although they had realized that they weren't alone. Creatures and sometimes ghosts were held prisoner in this dead and grey world or were still searching for the door that would bring them to their heaven.

Sophie and Lok were visible daunted by this new proximity. They always seemed to get alarmed and they always tried to survey the whole area, because they were afraid of being attacked. Dante seemed to be very calm but Zhalia knew that he was just hiding his suspicions. She herself was alertly too, she had the feeling that something would happen.

`Oh my god, do you see ´, Sophie screamed but was cut off by Zhalia who held her hand before Sophie's mouth.

`Shut up, girly. If anyone finds us because of you, you'll be the first one to be fed to the creatures´, Zhalia whispered. But Zhalia had seen the same thing and she was even more shocked than Sophie. It couldn't be. It had been many years, could she act amiss? Some metres away, behind a solid rock, a woman lay on the ground. She didn't seem to be hurt but she was exhausted and in a lack of sleep. But it wasn't the fact that there were other living people here that shocked Zhalia, it was the fact that of all people this woman was here.

`Go, help her´, Zhalia said to Lok and Sophie. As Dante wanted to follow she deterred him from going. In his eyes she saw the same wonderment and incredulity that she felt.

`Dante, I'm sure she's dead. I don't make failures and I always work precise. When I left her she was not alive anymore´, Zhalia's voice was shaky and very silent. Her eyes were glassy but she tried to control the feeling of being helpless. Dante stroke her cheek and tried to calm her down. Although he was unsure too, she had been a Foundation operative's daughter. Everyone thought her dead for years. She had never returned and Zhalia was the living demonstration for her death.

`We'll see what she has to say. Don't trouble yourself. We'll find a way´, he said.

`If I'd see my murderer again I wouldn't want to find a way´, Zhalia said cold and turned to help Lok and Sophie. Dante only sighed.

As he kneeled down beside the woman there were no doubts that she was the long lost and presumed dead Scarlett Byrne. Yes, she had grown up, but Dante would always recognize her. He had seen her often when there was a Foundation meeting and Metz and her father had been goof friends, so he had had no other choice than to spend time with her. She had redish-blond hair, nearly orange and she wore a green dress that totally not fitted her hair.

`We can't leave her here´, said Sophie, `She's helpless´.

`Yes, when I met her she was helpless too´, Zhalia whispered so only Dante could hear her. He shot her an evil eye.

`We won't leave her. She'll come with us´, Dante decided. Now it was Zhalia's turn to shoot him an evil gaze.

They both looked down when Scarlett started to earn consciousness again.

`Where am I´, she asked, her voice weak.

`It's alright Scarlett you're save´, Dante tried to calm her down. Sophie looked stunned.

`Wait, you two know each other´, she called. Dante wanted to say something but Scarlett didn't let him. She looked at him as if she had seen an epiphany. Than without a warning she fell into his arms and started to cry. Dante seemed to feel uneasy and looked apologetic over Scarlett's shoulder at Zhalia, who only rolled her eyes.

`Of cause we know us. Oh Dante it's you, I was able to escape the Blood Spiral and somehow I gained my life again. I knew who I am and who I was, but I don't know how I got here. I must have died. Oh Dante, I knew that it was our destiny to meet each other again´, she cried.

`Ahm, ok´, Dante said, `So, that means you don't remember how you died´.

`No, oh Dante, what happened. My dear father, he's all alone now´, Scarlett only whined. Dante already wanted to say something like: 'Well, that's good'. But he remembered that it wouldn't sound too nice to Scarlett. Although he saw Zhalia relaxing.

`Ok, that's not important. I'd like you to meet my team´, he pointed at Sophie and Lok,`Those two are Sophie and Lok and this´, he pointed at Zhalia, `is Zhalia Moon´.

Of cause Scarlett noticed how Dante said Zhalia's name. Scarlett turned around, she looked at Sophie and Lok and thanked the team for finding her. Then she looked at Zhalia. She couldn't believe that Dante could love such a woman. She didn't even wear a dress. One day she would get her revenge. And for now it was enough that everyone thought she couldn't remember her murderer.

`Thank you everyone. It's good to meet Dante's friends´, she said friendly.

`Let's see if you can walk´, said Dante and helped her up. She stood up and cramped to Dante's hands, as if she would fall.

`I'll help you, so you can walk with us´, Sophie offered her help. Of cause it wasn't that what Scarlett had wanted, but she couldn't decline her offer. So she leaned on Sophie and they slowly started walking.

`Looks like we got a 'We will wear dresses until we die-alliance' in our team´, Zhalia said her eyes lifted on Scarlett and Sophie, both wearing dresses

They had walked for hours now. They were in a small forest and they could hear a river somewhere near them. Scarlett was whining the whole time and still wasn't able to walk alone. The consequences were: Sophie was deadly annoyed, because she had to help Scarlett the whole time. Lok was hungry, but well he always was. Dante was trying to hide that he had had another idea of this trip and Zhalia's mood was completely on the lower levels.

`Oh my, can we make a break´, Scarlett whined. Sophie's answer was an annoyed sigh, Lok rolled his eyes and Zhalia turned to Dante with a gaze that seemed to call for help.

`I know, she can be annoying but you get used to it. I had too, when I was a child´, he only sighed.

`If she doesn't stop, it looks like I'll have to kill her for a second time´, Zhalia commented. Dante had to hide a chuckle. This wasn't really a thing a good team leader should laugh about.

`I think one time is enough´, he said instead and gave her a pack.

Then his eyes turned grave. He turned around to face his whole team and Scarlett.

`I don't know if you noticed it, but we're being watched´, he said, his voice quiet. Soon the rest of his team realized that about five dragon-like creatures were flying above them.

`Maybe spies´, said Lok.

`Yes that could be. We will act as normally as always and try to hide in the trees´, Dante commanded, `Scarlett, Sophie, you go first. You are slowest of us. If they attack us we'll hold them off´.

They had nearly reached the forest line, when suddenly the creatures attacked. Zhalia, Dante and Lok tried to hold them off, so that Sophie and Scarlett could flee, but they were too strong. Dante and Zhalia had killed two of them. Suddenly Lok was pinned down by one of the dragons. Zhalia was able to see his shirt turn red at his shoulder. She herself was fighting with one of the dragons. She saw Dante, he was nearer to Lok than she was, but he was engrossed in his own fight. 'Shit', Zhalia only thought, 'like I don't have my own dragon to fight with'.

She threw one of her daggers at the dragon which was fighting with Lok. She made a back handspring to avoid her dragons attack. Lok stood up, he didn't seem to have lost too much blood. But honestly Zhalia had better things to do now.

`Dante, we can't kill them now´, Lok called. Dante looked at him while fighting.

`Dante, he's right. Lok's too weak and our strength is used up´. Zhalia agreed.

`Ok, we'll follow Sophie and Scarlett, hurry now´, he called. Lok threw Zhalia's dagger back at her and she caught it.

They didn't need long to catch up with Sophie and Scarlett, but they were still followed by the three dragons.

`This way´, Sophie called and pointed to the right way when they came to a parting of the ways.

`How do you know it's the right way´, Zhalia asked.

`I don't know, just run´, was Sophie's answer. The team had gained an advance, but suddenly Sophie stopped.

`Oh no´, she said. The team had reached a sheer. The only thing beneath them was a deep sweeping river.

`Great Sophie´, Zhalia said.

`What are we doing now, we can't face them´, called Lok. Scarlett started crying and tried to hug Dante again, but he avoided her. In this moment he really had no nerve for this.

`There's no other chance, just jump´, said Zhalia but her idea wasn't accepted by everyone.

`No way, none of us would survive this´, called Sophie. Zhalia rolled her eyes. That's why she had always worked alone. Now she always had to pay attention to other people's lives.

`Sophie's right. Scarlett is too weak. She wouldn't survive this she can't swim in her condition´, Dante agreed. The team's discussion was interrupted by the two left dragons that attacked them again.

`I'd say we'll give her a try. I think she can handle it´, said Zhalia and pushed Scarlett from the sheer, `and if she can't handle it she'll get what she wanted all the time: You as her rescuer, Dante´. They heard Scarlett screaming while she was falling from the sheer. Dante looked at Zhalia completely stunned. Than he followed Scarlett.

`Are you crazy´, Sophie cried, `She'll never survive this´. Zhalia faced Sophie and smiled an evil smile.

`That depends on how fast Dante will reach and rescue her´, Zhalia said and jumped from the sheer too.

As soon as Zhalia met the water surface the river current caught her and pulled her underwater. Suddenly she remembered what had happened the last time when she was underwater, but she tried to ignore her fears and feelings. She felt how water entered her lounge and knew that it was time to drift with the river current. She felt dizzy and she felt her strength contracting.

Finally she had reached the shore and crawled out of the water. She was coughing hard and she always broke down again. She let herself fall on her back unable to stand up because her legs were shaking. She scanned the area and few metres away she was able to see Scarlett sitting on the ground crying, Sophie was next to Scarlett huddled on the ground, she was pail but breathing and she didn't seem to be hurt.

Zhalia's sight was blurred but she saw Dante. He helped Lok to his feet. Lok was pail too but he seemed to be the one who got the best of the bargain. Zhalia saw Lok looking at her over Dante's shoulder. Lok didn't seem to respond to Dante's questions anymore, anyway Dante turned around to see what Lok was looking at. Dante's gaze turned from shocked to anxious and Zhalia saw him approaching her, leaving Lok without a word. Zhalia blinked a few times and focused her eyes on the heaven again.

`Zhalia, are you alright´, she heard Dante's anxious voice. She opened her eyes and saw Dante kneeling next to her.

`Do I really look so bad that you think me dead´, she said with a cough. Dante shook his head and helped her up. He let her lean on his shoulder, because she was still not walking firm.

`Next time you warn me before you push one of our teammates from a cliff´, he chuckled. She just laughed and leeched on to Dante. While they were barging back to the others, Lok obliged them.

`God, you looked so damn dead there´, he called and tapped her on the shoulder.

`Well, I'll take that as a compliment´, Zhalia said. Suddenly an extreme soaked Sophie appeared behind Lok. She seemed to be at the end of her tether.

`Ok, I'm sorry but I can't do this anymore. Is there anyone else who can handle her, because I can't. She won't stop crying and honestly she's getting on my nerves´, she sighed annoyed.

`Well, I think it's Dante's turn now´, said Zhalia, `let's rest here, I think we could all need some sleep´.

Dante sighed and left the three to calm down Scarlett.

Scarlett had difficulties holding up her mask as she saw Dante rushing to Zhalia to comfort her. He hadn't acted the same way after rescuing her. Yes, he had made sure that she was alright, but he hadn't had that look in his eyes. That look he always had in his eyes when he looked at Zhalia. But she would handle this blue-haired bitch. Soon she would be alone with Dante.

The team sat together. It had become night and they had made a bonfire. Scarlett was leaning against a rock, Sophie leaned against Lok's shoulder and Zhalia used Dante's lap as a pillow and had fallen asleep while he was stroking her hair.

`Well, I'd call that an interesting day´, smiled Sophie.

`Yes, we had many things, but we have never been haunted by dragon´, Dante laughed. Suddenly Zhalia woke up and looked at him with sleepy eyes.

`Slept well´, Dante asked with a loving smile. She smiled.

`Yes´, was all Zhalia answered.

`Dante seems to be very comfortable pillow, right Zhalia´, teased Sophie. Zhalia looked at her with an amused gaze.

`Since when are you and Lok holding hands, Sophie´, Zhalia asked, focusing her gaze at the teens' hands. Sophie let go of Lok's hand as if she had been hit by an electric shock and mumbeled something like `since some days´.

`What a cute couple they are´, teased Dante, enjoying the sight of Lok and Sophie blushing.

`We are much cuter, darling´, was all Zhalia said before she fell asleep again

None of them paid attention to Scarlett, who had to hold back tears of rage at the sight of Dante and Zhalia

**Waaah Ok, this is it for now :D**

**I know most of you don't like Scarlett and I think you noticed that I don't like her too **

**So, I hope you liked it the chapter Please review, tell me what you think, what you like, what you don't like :D**

**Thanks to my fellow reviewers I am thankful for every review I get And it's great that you have the patience to wait for my uploads **

**Yours MissLaboe :D **


	16. At least it is worth it

**Chapter ****fifteen:**

**Third-person-narrator:**

Zhalia didn't know why but she couldn't sleep anymore. Something felt wrong. She scanned the area. Dante was lying next to her, Sophie and Lok were lying next to each other too, hand in hand. Everything seemed to be ok. But… Someone was missing. Scarlett was gone. Her blanket lay crumpled on the ground and there was no sign of her. Zhalia stood up, Scarlett wasn't that kind of person that just ran around in the darkness when she knew that no one could rescue her.

Suddenly she heard someone talking. She made her way to the river and hid behind a rock wall.

`Good work Scarlett´, she heard a voice, Zhalia knew very well.

`Thanks master. They still don't know where to find you´, Scarlett answered, her voice tributary. Zhalia watched the scene suspiciously. Scarlett was kneeling before a campfire. In the fire the shape of a man could be seen.

`You will lead them into our trap´, Rassimov said with a cold voice. Scarlett looked down on the ground. After some time she answered.

`But master. He won't get hurt, right? Dante won't get hurt… ´, she said, her voice silent and shaking.

`Of cause not, my dear. He will be yours. And you will be able to wipe out your murderer. And when Miss Moon is dead, I'm sure Vale will understand that you did all this to save him´, he calmed her down, but unlike Scarlett, Zhalia knew that Rassimov never kept his promises.

`And when will I be allowed to kill that woman´, asked Scarlett. Rassimov laughed.

`Soon my dear. Your time will come´, with those words he disbanded and left nothing but flames and smoke.

Zhalia leaned against the wall. She breathed heavily. This bitch had lied all the time. She had just acted and everyone had believed her. 'Of cause. I should have known it. Who on earth would forget his murderer. Not even Scarlett was that stupid', thought Zhalia. She felt anger bubbling up her body and mind. The whole day she had tried to feel guilty for killing Scarlett all those years ago, but in that moment she now felt like she could do it again.

`Oh, Zhalia. You're awake´, she heard a voice from behind. Zhalia turned around and saw Scarlett standing in front of her.

`Don't play with me. I know everything´, whispered Zhalia. Scarlett grinned.

`My dear Zhalia. Don't be angry. Honestly everything is your fault. If you hadn't killed me I would have never met the Blood Spiral. And if you wouldn't be here, no one would stand between Dante and me. And if nothing would stand between Dante and me, I wouldn't have to spy on your team to get near him. It's a circuit and it all starts with you Zhalia´, she said.

`This will never work out´, said Zhalia.

`Dante trusts me. He would never believe that the little hypocritical, shy and fearful, little girl Scarlett Byrne would do such a thing. But I won't let it come that far. If you try to tell anyone I'll hurt one of your dear friends and there is another thing. What if Lok would find out, who killed his father. He would never forgive you. And you know that it's not only me. What do you think would the Blood Spiral do to help me keep my secret´, grinned Scarlett.

`You know, Scarlett, there is one thing that you forgot: I have already killed you once and I'll enjoy the second time´, whispered Zhalia. Scarlett and Zhalia heard someone coming.

`Hey, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you two rest´, asked Sophie. Scarlett's behaviour changed within a second.

`Oh, yes Sophie. I just noticed that Zhalia couldn't sleep and I was worried´, said Scarlett in a friendly way and left Sophie and Zhalia. Sophie looked stunned and waited for Zhalia to explain what had happened but dark-haired woman didn't say a word and left.

`Yes, leave me. It's not like I'm interested´, called Sophie, but Zhalia didn't have the nerves to talk to her now.

`Oh shut up Sophie´, was all Zhalia murmured…

**Next day, third-person-narrator: **

`Ok, the Blood Spiral's headquarters aren't far away. We'll climb up this rock wall, I know this is going to be a hard and long climb but it's the only way´, said Dante.

The team was standing in front of a rock wall. The midday sun was shining through the clouds but it was drizzling. Dante and Zhalia were the first to start climbing. Sophie, Scarlett and Lok followed them. The climb was complete stressing and exhausting. Not only that it was difficult to not glide off the wet stones but they also had to stop every few metres because Scarlett wasn't fit enough.

After about two hours of climbing, Zhalia was a few metres ahead of Dante. She hadn't paid much attention to Scarlett. And honestly she hadn't paid much attention to anyone else. Scarlett's words had nested themselves in her head. She had tried to forget what Scarlett had said, but in an awful way it all made sense. She was the one who was responsible for everything. It was her fault that Scarlett was spying on the team. Deep inside, she knew that she had made a decision.

The rain had become stronger but Zhalia didn't have a problem with it. At least no one would notice that some of the raindrops in her face were tears. She was lost in her own thoughts, she didn't feel the cold and the wind. She heard Dante and Sophie calling something from beneath her, but she didn't respond, busy with accepting her choice. Suddenly she felt her hands glide from the wet rock, she tried to hold on but she wasn't able to gain her balance again. She felt herself falling backwards and a scream escaped her lips. Before she had the time to react she felt someone grabbing her hand. She gasped as her free fall was suddenly stopped. She looked up in panic and tried to get hold on something but Dante pulled her up on a ledge. She was shaking heavily and Dante was paler than normally. Sophie and Lok had gotten ahead of them and didn't notice the scene.

`God, you got a sense for scaring the death out of me´, Dante said. Zhalia wasn't in the mood to smile about his comment. There was something she had to do, something she wanted to do…

`Dante, there is something I want you to know´, she whispered, ` I want you to know that whatever happens, I love you. You were the reason why I changed and I want to thank you for everything, for our time together, for showing me what love is and for showing me who I really am´. Dante took her hand and kissed its back.

`I love you too. And when we're back home again, we'll have enough time. No one can take that from us…´, he whispered.

Suddenly they heard Sophie calling.

`Hey you two! We nearly got it´, she called. Dante looked up and smiled

`After you´, he said with a grin and wanted Zhalia to climb first, but she stood still.

`I'll wait for Scarlett. I'm not so sure that she'll be able to get up there alone´, she said. Dante was a little bit puzzled but on the other hand he was thankful too that he didn't have to help Scarlett. He wanted to climb on but Zhalia took his hand.

`Be careful´, Zhalia said, her voice shaky.

`I'm always careful´, he answered with a grin, `See you at the top´. Zhalia let go of his hand with a bad feeling. If he would know what she was going to do, he would have never let her alone.

Zhalia saw that Scarlett had approached the ledge. Zhalia looked up Dante and the others were too high above them to see what was going on. She pulled Scarlett up on the ledge and pinned her against the rock wall.

`If you kill me, Rassimov will know´, Scarlett said but Zhalia however saw the fear lighten up in her eyes.

Zhalia tightened her grip around Scarlett's throat. Her eyes were full of hate and antipathy.

`If I leave, you will stop spying on the team´, Zhalia whispered. Scarlett wanted to say something but Zhalia cut her off.

`You will listen to me now. I will be gone and you will help the team. You want your revenge because I killed you. That's a thing between you and me. And you'll leave the rest of the team out of it. You will promise me to not betray the team´, Zhalia's voice was cold as ice.

Scarlett first didn't understand what Zhalia meant but after a few seconds she nodded.

Zhalia made a few steps back and let Scarlett go. Scarlett still looked puzzled.

`But how are you going to leave the team. Dante wouldn't understand. What will you tell him´, she asked.

`Nothing. You wanted to keep him from every pain. But one of the reasons why I don't kill you is that I want you to see what you did to him. With forcing me to leave, you hurt him more than anyone else ever did´, Zhalia said with a cold voice. She looked at Scarlett a last time. Then she approached the abyss backwards until there was only a small space left between her and the deep. Suddenly Scarlett realized what Zhalia was about to do. Her eyes widened in shock when seeing the dark haired woman letting herself fall from the ledge…

**Scarlett's pov: **

`No´, Scarlett whispered to herself, `no, it can't be´. She approached the abyss but the dark haired woman was no more able to be seen. Suddenly Scarlett felt bad, it was one thing to kill a person but it was something else to make a person kill herself. But on the other hand she tried to hold the feeling of remorse back. She had all she ever wanted now. She was alive again, she was a Foundation's operative and she was in a team with Dante. And now there was nothing that would stand in their way. He had lost Zhalia and he needed someone who comforted him. And he would forget Zhalia.

Finally Scarlett had arrived at the top of the cliff. She looked around and saw Lok sitting on the ground. He was at the end of his strengths. Dante and Sophie were scanning the area talking to each other about their route.

Dante turned around ready to great Zhalia but Scarlett saw him getting concerned when no one followed Scarlett. He approached Scarlett looking over her shoulder searching for a sign of Zhalia.

`Scarlett where is Zhalia´, his voice was expressionless, nearly cold. His fear seemed to make him forget anything else.

`She… She tried to pull me up, because I nearly fell and then she lost balance and…´, Scarlett's voice was weak but Dante understood every word. The team's reactions were so different but they all expressed the same thing: Sorrow and incredulity.

Lok just looked at Scarlett. His eyes widened and the shock was literally written on his face. Sophie was silent for a while, than she turned pail and her eyes filled with tears. Some seconds later her body was being shaken by loud sobs. She wasn't really crying. It more sounded like she was suffocating. Dante on the contrary did something Scarlett had never expected. He screamed out and fell to his knees. His face signed by anger and sorrow.

Suddenly Scarlett understood what Zhalia had meant. She had caused Dante a pain he had never felt before…

**Zhalia's pov:**

Pain wasn't something new for Zhalia but this was beyond all bearing. She had forgotten that the fall wasn't the thing that caused the pain. The bounce did, and in this moment its pain made her forget everything. But she knew that the pain was worth it. The team's mission wouldn't fail because of Scarlett's hate against her. And Dante was safe, she knew that he would have a hard time forgetting about her. But one day he would find someone, Zhalia was sure about it, even if she was sad that she wouldn't be the one who was able to spend her life with him. And Zhalia… Zhalia had decided that, without Dante, there was nothing worth living for…

And so she had made her decision. She had felt so much pain in her life and if she'd die to save the people she loved, she had no problem with it…

`At least my sacrifice will make sense…´, she whispered, while facing the heaven. Raindrops were falling down on her face. The grey clouds were reflected in her brown glassy eyes. A single tear ran down her cheek… And finally endless blackness overcame her releasing her from all the pain…

**My dear readers…**

**I'm sorry, but I just love cliffhangers… Don't be mad at me… Please review… Or you'll never know what will happen next…**

**Greetings…:D**

**Yours MissLaboe…**


	17. Love is selfassassination

**One day in the past: Zhalia's pov:**

It couldn't be. It shouldn't be. The darkness around her was lightened up. She moved her hand to her head. This headache was insufferable. But wait… She opened her eyes. She shouldn't be able to use her arm. The last time she had seen her body, her arm was unnatural angulated from her body. How could she be able to move. Her bones should be broken after her deadly bounce. Something wasn't right here. She scanned the area, but she wasn't able to see much, because it was dark. She realized that she was lying in a dark room. There were no windows and the door was closed. The room looked like a prison cell. There was a big mirror in the back of the room where also a chair and a table stood.

Zhalia tried to stand up but she collapsed. Her bones were no more broken but her legs didn't want to carry her. The pain caused the darkness to return…

**Present: Sophie's pov: **

Two days. She was gone now for two days and the entire team situation had changed… Sophie wasn't talking to anyone anymore aside from Lok. Lok tried to cheer the whole team up, but he failed with award. Dante shot Lok evil eyes every time he tried. Dante had closed himself up completely… He hadn't said a word since Zhalia's death and most of the time he had spent alone.

Scarlett on the contrary didn't seem to be sad at all. But rather something seemed to gnaw at her conscience. And Sophie had an idea what it was…

She remembered that night in which she had heard Scarlett and Zhalia arguing about something she didn't understand. Sophie was sure it had something to do with Zhalia's sudden death. Another thing that bothered her was, that Scarlett and Zhalia had been alone when Zhalia died…

**Present: Scarlett's pov: **

Scarlett didn't understand the situation. She had always thought that Zhalia wasn't very liked by her team members. Well, yes, Dante loved her… But Scarlett would have never thought that Sophie and Lok would feel such sorrow about Zhalia's death. They had really liked her, maybe even loved her like a sister or something. Scarlett would have never imagined that Zhalia would be so important for the team. And Scarlett felt bad, she somehow understood that she didn't mean anything to Dante. He had been cold and emotionless since Zhalia's death. He had turned into a new person. Deep inside Scarlett had realized that she would never be with Dante…

**Present: Dante's pov:**

He had spent the day alone. Alone, as he would be from now on. But now it was time to return to the camp, it was already dark. He sighed when he remembered that there would be no one waiting for him. Well, yes… Sophie and Lok and Scarlett, but not Zhalia. He would never see her beautiful brown eyes again and he would never see her again. But he had the feeling that Zhalia had known of her death. The way she had talked to him while their last conversation…Like she had wanted to say goodbye. At the beginning of this journey Dante had known that each one of them would have to make sacrifices but he had always deterred himself from thinking about losing one of his team mates. But now he hadn't lost a team member, he had lost her, he had lost Zhalia…

Suddenly he was forced out of his mind. The camp was empty. The bonfire was still burning but there was no sign of Sophie, Scarlett and Lok.

`Look who's there´, a cold voice from behind Dante called.

Dante spun around ready to attack but he stopped when he saw Rassimov holding Sophie. There were to scars running over Rassimov's face. They looked recent. Lok was lying on the floor in front of them. Unconscious, at least Dante hoped Lok was unconscious. Sophie seemed to be in state of trance. She wasn't moving and her eyes were widened in shock while Rassimov was holding a blade against her neck. There were two other people next to Rassimov. A woman with green long hair wearing a dark red dress. She didn't look very friendly and the daggers and swords in her belt didn't mitigate this aspect. The other person was a man. He was tall and muscular, his black hair was short and he was wearing some kind of black leather armament. This had to be Shauna and Wind. Zhalia had told him about them once.

`Let them go! You want me, not them. They are only kids´, called Dante. Rassimov only laughed.

`I won't do anything to them if you capitulate. Give up your weapons´, he called. Dante looked at Sophie who shook her head as if she wanted to say 'No, Dante. Don't do it'. And Lok, well Lok wasn't able to say anything. Dante was sure that he had tried to protect Sophie. Then suddenly something came to his mind.

`Where's Scarlett? What did you do to her´, Dante called, his eyes searching for the woman. Suddenly Sophie burst out laughing in a bitter way.

`This little bitch was the one who betrayed us. She was spying on our team the whole time´, Rassimov shut her up with an evil laugh. Dante couldn't believe his ears. He looked over Rassimov's shoulder and saw Scarlett standing behind him. Her eyes were filled with guiltiness.

`Yes, our dear Scarlett loved you so much that she was ok with betraying your team and you. We always knew where you were because she sent us messages daily. And her animosity against Miss Moon helped us to get rid of her. But I don't want to tell you everything, because I have a little surprise concerning you and Miss Moon´, Rassimov said.

Dante couldn't believe it. Scarlett had betrayed them all the time. She had killed Zhalia, she had spied on his team.

`Dante, I'm sorry. I didn't have a chance. I didn't kill Zhalia. She jumped by choice. I didn't force her to kill herself´, Scarlett stammered.

`Yes Vale, she's right. She didn't kill Miss Moon. Miss Moon was only too clever, she noticed that Scarlett was one of us. Scarlett somehow had to deter her from telling you the truth. So Scarlett blackmailed her. Scarlett would stop betraying the team if Miss Moon would leave the team. And so Miss Moon chose her way. And this way led her down the cliff. Our benefit was that your team was weaker now and we now have Miss Moon in our hands´, Rassimov announced his plan.

Dante closed his eyes. The truth about what had happened to Zhalia was worse than he had thought. The whole past days he had tried to handle the idea of her falling from this cliff by accident. But now he had to handle the idea of Zhalia jumping into her death by chance only to save him and his team. She had known about Scarlett and she had decided to kill herself on that day. Because of that she had told him to go ahead, she wanted him to think that she fell. That was the reason why she was that sad and confused this day. She had been preparing herself for her death.

He looked up to Sophie again. Tears were running down her cheek. She was at the end of her strength and she was slowly realizing what Zhalia had done on that day. Dante threw is weapons on the ground before him. He had no chance. They would kill Sophie and Lok if he didn't surrender.

At the beginning of this journey he had been aware of the danger to get tricked by the Blood Spiral, but this was something he would have never considered. Maybe because of the cruelty and the brutality this trap had enclosed. He would have never thought that a human being could be that cruel…

**One day in the past: Zhalia's pov:**

When she awoke again she was still lying on the floor. She didn't know how much time had passed since she passed out. She was now able to stand up, although she was still not really stabile. The headache was still torturing her and her body still hurt. She looked down at her body. She was wearing a long black dress but that wasn't really the thing she was interested in. She went to the mirror and looked at her reflection. She was pale and her face was signed by many little scars and scratches as if she had been running through a wood of thorns. But they would heal soon. Most of the worst scars on her neck had already healed. Zhalia still couldn't understand why she was still being alive. Those broken bones couldn't have healed in such a short period of time. She lifted the border of her dress up to her thigh and took a look at her leg. It was still badly bruised, her pale skin was covered with blue and red marks, some scratches could still be seen, although there were no signs of broken bones. She let go of the border and looked at her hands. They seemed to be unharmed. Something wasn't right here. Zhalia remembered bleeding after hitting the ground. She ran her fingers through her hair but she didn't notice any wounds. Her hair wasn't even encrusted by dried blood. She felt her shoulder hurting badly. She took a closer look and noticed that under her dress her shoulder was bandaged, she saw that the bandages weren't able to hold back the blood. Some of it was flowing through the bandages. She didn't understand this. Her whole body had healed but her shoulder was still wounded…

Suddenly she heard how the door was being unlocked. She spun around and looked into the one face she didn't want to see in that moment. Rassimov was looking at her coldly.

`So Miss Moon, it looks like you have recovered from your fall´, he said with a grin. Zhalia looked at him without turning a hair.

`What did you do to me? I should be dead´, was all she said.

`Well, let's say the Blood Spiral still needs you. We have our ways to heal people with magic´, he answered. Zhalia understood. The Blood Spiral had rescued her after her fall, only to make her to their victim after she had healed. Well that was another form of 'recycling', Zhalia thought.

`What do you want with me? I won't help you. Aside from you already have a spy in the team´, she said her voice cold.

`We don't want you to give us information. You will help us to get information. You're the only person for whom your dear team leader would give up everything. He would do everything to keep you save. We'll soon get your team members. And as soon as we got Vale, we got our information. Klaus has taught you many things, some of them weren't necessary. But you should have thought of one thing Zhalia: Don't forge close links to your team members. As soon as you have feelings for a person you are vulnerable´, he grinned and turned around.

Midnight blue haired woman couldn't hold back anymore. She attacked the man from behind swearing at him.

He turned around trying to punch her, but she avoided his fist and kicked him. He got hold on her neck and pinned her against the wall. She was still too weak to fight him.

`Do you really think you can defeat me alone and in your condition´, he whispered, `I want you to owe me respect´.

She only shot him a contemptuous gaze and spat him in his face. He loosened his grip around her neck for a second and she broke free. She ran to the door but he caught her wrist. Trying to get free she scratched his face with her finger nails. He screamed feeling her nails clawing over his face, although he didn't let go and consulted her. He hustled her against the wall and in that moment Zhalia saw the reason of not healing her shoulder completely. Rassimov pressed his fist into her injured and bleeding shoulder. Pain overcame her and Zhalia started to see black spots dancing before her eyes. She tried to withstand collapsing. Suddenly he stopped and held his fist in front of her face. His hand was painted red by her blood. He let go of her and left the room without a word.

Zhalia heard him locking the door again. She slid to the ground her back leaning against the wall. Her legs had caved in under her weight…

**Well… I didn't let her die…:D**

**So, I hope you like the way I turned the tables... Please tell me what you think… Because I was thinking about this idea since some time…**

**Thanks for your reviews everyone…:D I'll try to continue as soon as possible…:D**

**Yours MissLaboe…..:D**


	18. Combined

**Chapter seventeen:**

**Dante's pov:**

Dante had woken up about three hours ago. First he didn't know where he was. He had tried to move but he hadn't been able to. He felt like he just came out from anaesthesia. But now he felt better. He was able to move again. He was able to see clearly and he was no more that exhausted. The room looked like a prison cell. Sophie and Lok were lying on the floor. They were breathing and they didn't seem to be hurt. The Blood Spiral seemed to have anaesthetized them to hide the place where their basis was set.

Suddenly Lok started moving a bit. Dante approached him. Lok's face was a bit bruised but he could look worse.

`Dante, what are they doing with us´, Lok whispered his voice weak. Dante felt uncomfortable.

`I don't know. But the fact that they let us live shows that they still need us´, he answered.

`That really cheers me up, you know´, Lok answered. Dante helped him to sit up and lean against a prison wall. He turned around when the door opened. Wind stood in the doorway, holding a barely awake Zhalia. Dante's heart skipped at this sight. On the one hand the feeling when seeing her alive was just so overwhelming, but on the other hand he was more than worried about her. Wind held her by her shoulders to keep her from falling. She seemed to be awake but she was in some sort of anaesthesia too. Not being able to walk alone. Pail, her left eyebrow bruised, blood dropping from her mouth…

Dante went up to them his gaze focused only on Zhalia.

`Rassimov sent me to deliver a present´, Wind said with a grin. He shoved Zhalia's limp body away from him. Dante was able to catch her before her body hit the ground. Dante embraced her and stroke her hair out of her face. Her eyes were half open but she seemed to look through him. Dante looked at Wind.

`What in the world did you do to her? ´, asked Dante, his voice full of danger and anger.

`Let's just say: Every time we entered her cell, she started attacking us. Even without weapons this dolly-bird is dangerous. We had no other chance than to drug her´, Wind answered. He left the room, closing the door and locking them up again.

Dante held her tight. It felt good to hold her in his arms. He felt her heart beating and he couldn't hold back the tear that was running down his cheek. He didn't know how long he had sat there. He, kneeling on the ground with her in his arms. Her head leaning against his chest. There were moments where he thought that she realized who he was but most of the time she was in a trance, nearly sleeping. But it didn't matter to Dante. All that mattered to him was that she was with him again, that she was alive…

**Zhalia's pov: **

Pictures were flowing through her mind. Too defused and blurry to be identified. Voices were calling clouded and mazy. But she didn't perceive them. She wasn't able to move, and her body felt numb. But from time to time she started to feel her body again, her sight cleared but she was still exhausted and completely out of it. But she realized that someone was holding her. And who should hold her..? Only one person had held her in her life. And that person was Dante.

`Everything's alright Zhaal´, Dante whispered. Zhalia blinked a few times.

`What did they do to me´, she asked.

`They drugged you because you always tried to attack them´, Dante smiled. He was proud, that was his Zhalia. Never giving up, not even if she was alone in a prison cell.

`Aaaw, I knew that there had to be something wrong when they entered my cell with an injection´, she mumbled. Dante chuckled although he was still concerned about her. But she hadn't lost her humour and sarcasm.

`Are they alright? ´, asked Zhalia, her eyes focusing on Lok and Sophie. Dante looked up. Lok and Sophie were sitting on the ground in another corner of the cell. Dante assumed that Sophie had told Lok not to disturb them.

`Yes, I think so´, answered Dante. He had to smile at the sight of Sophie slapping Lok as he riveted on Dante's and Zhalia's interlaced hands.

`Looks like they haven't grown up while I was away´, commented Zhalia. Sophie looked at her and made her way to Dante and Zhalia. She held out her hand to help Zhalia up. Zhalia paused for a while, than she took Sophie's hand. Sophie gave her a lag of.

`Don't ever scare me like that again. We all thought you were dead´, said Sophie. Zhalia was a little bit puzzled when the girl hugged her. Dante smiled at Zhalia's puzzled gaze, while Sophie hugged her. 'At least I am with Dante and the others again' thought Zhalia.

**Ok… **

**Well, I didn't want to keep you waiting that long so I uploaded this chapter… I know, it's not very long and I'm not sure about how it is…**

**And because of that I need you to review… I want to know what you think…:D**

**Greetings…**

**Yours MissLaboe…**


	19. Free but apart

_**Chapter eighteen: **_

_**Scarlett pov:**_

She felt bad, since three days Dante and the others were held prison at the Blood Spirals base. Scarlett couldn't forget the look on Dante's face when he understood that she had betrayed him. Rassimov had kept his promise, she was free to go, but somehow she had the feeling that she couldn't leave the team here.

She was afraid but she knew that she had to do this. She had already stolen the keys so there was no way back. She made her way down to the cells but was stopped by the guards.

`We can't let you pass. Our master doesn't want anyone near the prisoners´, one of the guards said. Scarlett didn't know if this would work but the guards weren't the cleverest guys.

`Rassimov send me here. He wants me to talk to them. It is time to force some information out of them… After that I am commanded to take them up to Rassimov´, Scarlett tried to say as convincing as possible. The guards looked at each other for a moment, than they let her in. Scarlett couldn't believe that they had believed her without even asking Rassimov.

They opened the door for her. First all four team members looked at her. Then she heard a voice.

`This time I'll kill her´, Dante snarled. He stood up and walked in front of Zhalia as if he wanted to protect her from Scarlett's gaze.

`Darling, I killed her once. I better do it the second time too´, Zhalia grinned in an evil way. She shoved him away gently. Scarlett knew why, Zhalia didn't need a man who protected her. She was able to look after herself and she let nothing get between her and her liberty and independence.

`We could share the job´, Dante said `deal?´.

`Accepted´, answered Zhalia still grinning.

`I know I did wrong. But I want to help you. I can free you´, Scarlett said and she tried to sound confident, although she felt like her voice would faint.

`Yes, of cause… I mean it's not like you betrayed us since we met you´, murmured Zhalia.

`I know, what I've done can't be forgiven, but this time I really want to help´, Scarlett whispered.

`Oh, C'mon… We are already trapped, Rassimov can't do that a second time´, Lok answered.

`You're hungry right? ´, asked Zhalia, `You just want to go with her to get some food as soon as you are free´. Zhalia's comment made Sophie snort with laughter…

`Ey, that's not fair, it's not like we would get acceptable food here´, Lok murmured.

`You should teach him how to diet, Dante´, Sophie laughed. Dante who had stared at Scarlett in an evil way suddenly stopped and looked at Sophie.

`Why me? ´, Dante asked indignant.

`Excuse me? He's your apprentice. You're his teacher, it's your job´, teased Zhalia him. While he put his arm around her waist.

`Ahm, may I interrupt you´, Scarlett said quietly. The team was suddenly silent.

`The guards trust me, they'll let us go. But you have to be quiet´, Scarlett whispered.

The team nodded and followed her. Scarlett was happy that they still trusted her, well at least they didn't kill her.

_**Zhalia's pov:**_

First Zhalia couldn't believe it: The guards really let them pass. Rassimov should better look after his people. Scarlett led them in some kind of storeroom. It was dark in there and the room was very small.

`Ok, this is the key for the backdoor. You better get out of here as soon as possible´, Scarlett whispered. Dante wanted to take the keys but Zhalia's words stopped him.

`I want the keys for Shauna's bed-chambers´, Zhalia said clearly. Everyone looked at her.

`Excuse me? What do you want? ´, Sophie asked dumbfounded.

`You heard me. I want the keys´, Zhalia said once again.

`Zhalia, there is no chance in winning. We are outnumbered and our strength is gone´, Dante said mild as if he wanted to deter her from doing whatever she had in mind.

`We can win. It is maybe our only chance. Shauna is the key´, Zhalia told them. None of the others understood what she meant. Not even Dante seemed to have a clue. Zhalia rolled her eyes.

`Did any of you guys ever hear anything about strategy? About using peoples' fears and weaknesses against them? ´, she asked. `We overpower Shauna, somehow we'll let Wind and Rassimov know, they'll try to rescue her and we kill them. It's like trap´.

The whole team looked at her.

`You are so sneaky, but I like that´, Sophie finally said. Zhalia grinned.

`Let's give it a try´, said Dante `But we should split up. Sophie, Lok, you two leave the base with Scarlett. It's too dangerous´.

`If you wouldn't have to kill three creeps I'd say you wanted some time alone with Zhalia´, Lok commented. Sophie started giggling and Zhalia knew: If she wouldn't have held Dante's hand she would have slapped Lok.

`But how will we know if something happened to you´, Scarlett whispered from behind. Sophie gave her a look that clearly said: _As if you care what happens to Zhalia. You only care for him. _Zhalia turned around.

`That's easy honey. If we come back we made it, if not we're dead´, she said coldly. What Zhalia had said sounded rude and cold but everyone knew that she was right.

_**Dante's pov: **_

`Ok, if we don't come back, go and try to make your way back into the world of the living. The Blood Spiral won't search for you, if they already destroyed us´, Dante said.

Everything was silent now. It was time to say goodbye, maybe for ever. No one wanted to say anything. Dante could see that Sophie was already trying to hold back her tears and Lok was pale. After their long journey the team had reached their hardest challenge. Saying goodbye without even knowing if they would ever meet again was something they hadn't been prepared for. It was Sophie's and Lok's first mission. Dante normally worked alone and Zhalia had never allowed herself to build up a relationship.

Sophie was the first who couldn't stop the tears from falling. She started to cry silently and when Lok tried to hug her she pushed him away. And now for the second time in two days Sophie was hugging Zhalia while crying bitterly.

Dante smiled at this. Now, when they would have to depart from each other, they seemed to realise how much they cared for each other. Of cause Sophie was still a little princess but Dante was sure that Zhalia was like a sister for Sophie. They had all turned into a small family even though they were often fighting and arguing. And he was proud of his team.

_**Zhalia's pov:**_

Sophie let Zhalia go. She didn't say anything; they both knew what they wanted the other one to know. Zhalia watched how Dante and Lok said goodbye and she watched how Dante tried to calm Sophie down.

`So, this is where we say goodbye´, said Lok, trying to sound calm, but Zhalia knew that he was crying invisible tears too. He just didn't want Sophie to see him crying.

`Yes´, Zhalia said quietly, `Take care of our little princess´. Lok had to smile at this and he gave her a short hug. Midnight blue haired seeker remembered their many training sessions together, when they were still at the Foundation's basis. When Lok was just a boy and not a seeker.

`You have to leave now´, Dante said. Sophie and Lok nodded, they looked at each other for a last time. Then they went to go with Scarlett following them.

Zhalia wondered if she would ever see them again, but on the other hand she knew that if she would die today she would die in the best time of her life. She had friends who respected her and she didn't have to hide anymore, she was who she was. Yes, maybe she was still cold and aloof but she had friends who knew that she had reason to be like that and they loved her for who she was.

Zhalia winced as Dante put his hand on her shoulder. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she had forgotten everything around her for a while.

`This is how I always wanted it to be´, whispered Dante, his lips near her ear. Zhalia turned around and looked at him filled with indignation.

`How can you say this. I-I mean… ´, she stammered but was interrupted by Dante.

`You are with me. There is no one left but you are here and you stay with me. This is what I wanted since I first saw you and now here we are… ´, he said. She wasn't able to see his face clearly because it was dark but she saw that his eyes were filled with affection and love and he kissed the back of her hand.

`C'mon, let's go kick some asses. We don't want to let Sophie and Lok wait´, she said as she let go of his hand and went to go… He burst out laughing and followed her…

…_**.**_

_**I know there wasn't much action this time… **_

_**But I needed this chapter to get to a point where I want the story to be… I wanted to thank you all for the great reviews, which I always get… It is really great to hear that you like what I write…**_

_**Please review and have fun while reading…**_

_**Yours…**_

_**~MissLaboe~ **_


	20. A crystalclear ending

**Chapter 19:**

**Third person narrator:**

In Dante's head the last moments seemed to repeat themselves again and again. He didn't know anymore how long it had taken to kill Wind. All he knew was that it was his dagger which had finally pierced through his heart. It had been a long and grim fight which had really pushed him to the limit of what's bearable. Their fight had been set in a great corridor. The timber piling was scratched by weapons and the pictures and paintings were wrecked and clearly signed by the fight. Here and there blood splashes had covered the floor and painted the dark brown timber piling dark red. Vases' shards crunched under his boots as he left Wind's bleeding body. Silence filled the room. Uncomfortable silence which settled itself on his tympanum and made it hard for him to withstand sinking on his knees.

After departing Wind from Shauna he and Zhalia had also separated. She would kill Shauna and he would finish Wind. That had been their plan. They had both known that Rassimov would be too hard to be finished off by only one person. Right now the adrenaline didn't leave any space for worries or sorrow but Dante knew that this would change soon if he didn't find her.

**Zhalia's pov:**

The sky was black only interrupted by white, little stars sparkling through the shadows. Zhalia was leaning against the barrier of the castle's highest tower. Her gaze was focused on the acreage, her arms where interlaced and her gaze was hieratical. In the doorway, which led to the spiral staircase, Shauna stood. She looked straight at Zhalia who still didn't turn around to face her.

`You didn't really think that you could just come here and beat us, did you? ´ , Shauna's voice was aggressive but Zhalia could hear that she was surprised and upset. Surprised that they had been able to escape, surprised that Zhalia had had the strength and courage to challenge her, surprised that she hadn't let herself be killed earlier.

`That was actually my idea. And as you see, I'm not joking´, Zhalia grinned at Shauna's shocked and angry expression.

`It looks like no one taught you the art of a poker face´, Zhalia added `Showing emotions means showing weaknesses´. With that Zhalia attacked with a back handspring and kicked Shauna into the stomach. Shauna only growled and made a step back only to dodge another of Zhalia's attacks. Her fist met Zhalias's temple which caused her view to be disrupted by black spots. She kicked Shauna's legs away so that her green haired enemy balanced and fell on her back. Zhalia pinned her against the ground. Her hands pressed on Shauna's throat and her eyes cold as ice she tried to keep her enemy from defending herself. One of her hands let go of Shauna's throat to palpate her belt in hope to find her dagger.

The green haired seeker used this opportunity to slap her hand away. Suddenly Zhalia felt Shauna's knee kicking her stomach and she found herself lying on her back. Shauna was standing above her and the next second Zhalia could feel Shauna's foot kicking her stomach. The midnight-blue haired seeker started cowing and realised that she was cowing blood. Her enemy used this weak spot of her and threw her to another corner of the tower. Her head hit one of the wooden roof-beams with full force and she could feel a hot liquid flowing from her head, adhering her hair and dropping on her clothes. Her sight turned dizzy and before she was able to see clearly again and before she was able to gain control about her senses, she was thrown against the tower's barrier and lifted up again so that her upper part of the body's weight would drag her under if she wasn't able to gain control about the fight again.

`Killing me won't bring you anything! Without killing my dear brother Rassimov you can't change anything. And believe me, he doesn't let himself be killed by such a homeless brat as you are! Your whole life was controlled by the organisation and played like a dramatic theatre play. And this is not your part to play´, Shauna laced up Zhalia's throat so that breathing became really hard for her. In her mind Zhalia thought of each and every way to kill Shauna and get herself out of this very unpleasant position with her back to the abyss.

The first possibility was to manoeuvre Shauna's body over hers so that she could throw her off of the tower, but this would probably increase the chance to fall from the tower too.

The second was to once again decide to sacrifice herself and throw herself off of the tower taking Shauna with her. But honestly Zhalia could remember the pain from her last fall and she didn't feel like repeating it.

The third and also best possibility was to get her hands up to Shauna's neck and try to break it. With a bit of luck she could gain balance again and rescue herself.

Zhalia was ripped out of her thoughts by Shauna's words.

`The bloodspiral's master won't ever be finished if the crystal isn't destroyed. The crystal has all the people imprisoned who died without sense. I won't let you get there and free them. You won't ever be in the position to destroy it because this time the bloodspiral won't rescue you after such a fall´, Shauna grinned. Her eyes sparkled with lust to kill. Zhalia knew that it wasn't right, but she needed Shauna to get doubtful and inattentively. And Zhalia couldn't deny that a small and growing part of her wanted to see Shauna suffer. She decided to bluff.

`You know what? Dante and me just killed your brother. Wind right? Do you want to know how ignoble and sleazy he was begging us to spare his life. I can for sure say you wouldn't have wanted to see it. I was so ashamed of him that I couldn't bear letting him live and cry for his fate. You for sure understand it. Nothing is worse than people who chum up with someone when the situation gets ticklish. But I guess that runs in your family´, Zhalia's words came out halting and quietly because breathing became even harder. Shauna's grip around her throat was steely and of iron and Zhalia was sure the she would have bruises from her fingertips when this was finished.

Shauna's reaction was, just as Zhalia had thought and expected, angry and doubtful. She didn't know if this story about her brother was true and just the thought of it was almost unbearable for her. And her attention was distracted by her inner conflict and dubiety. Her grip around Zhalia's throat therefore sustained. Zhalia knew that she would have to make Shauna think she had finished her enemy. Than in the last seconds she had before suffocating she would react so that Shauna wouldn't have any time to answer back.

This plan however was for sure a challenge for Zhalia. She had often been at the brink to death. But this had always happened against her will. This time she had to relax and wait and this was something she wasn't used to.

`How can you dare saying such things! Someone like you has no right to adjudicate on my family. You are worth nothing. You did nothing that could justify a life such as you lived with the organisation. You were one of our best assistants. Can you remember how many people you killed, can you even count them. And now you think you're something better. You…´, Shauna's voice got quieter and quieter. Black spots started dancing before her eyes and her view turned dizzy. The whole scene seemed play in black-white and silence overcame her ears. Zhalia knew, it was time.

`Believe me, my story won't end here. This is only the beginning! ´, Zhalia croaked out of air.

With her last strength left she brought her hands up to Shauna's neck and turned her chin about 180° degrees around. A loud `crack´ which even predominated the death's deafness in Zhalia's ear, assured Zhalia that she had won. She slumped down the brick barrier and all her strength left her.

`The things you do to save a world which never cared about you´, she whispered sarcastically, breathing hard and trying to recover.

Suddenly something rang in her mind. Shauna's words had been important. With her last words she had sealed the bloodspiral's fate. With telling Zhalia about the crystal she had revealed the bloodspiral's secret and life guarantee. This job was not finished yet. Zhalia knew that it was against the plan Dante and her had had but this was important. She had always wondered why no one had killed Rassimov before. And here was the answer. This crystal made it impossible to kill Rassimov. It wasn't Rassimov who was hard to be killed, it was the aspect that no one had known about the crystal. And now she had to destroy the crystal, else Dante and she had already lost.

Thanking the adrenalin for pulsing in her veins she stood up again and made her way down to the basement vaults. While she had been with the organisation, she had heard rumours and legends about this crystal. And in every of this stories the crystal had been hid in the basement vaults. While she was walking down the stairs she noticed the silence which filled the corridors and rooms of the castle. The silence became unbearable the deeper she went down to the building's core. She passed the dungeons and prisons, the torture chambers and armouries. And there was the gate she had searched for. An iron gate which was locked with an extra padlock. Zhalia's eyes slowly got used to the darkness and she was able to break the lock with her dagger. A silent `click´ signalled her that the lock had given in under her dagger's blade's pressure. She opened the gate and the silence was interrupted by a creaking groan. This gate seemed to not have been opened for years or better decades.

The next view she got from the area made her stop and stare. She had just entered a great, subsurface hall. The walls were out of black commercial marble and a long bridge led to a round podium. On both sides of the bridge and all around the podium an underground lake drowsed. A green light came from the podium on which a crystal lay in form of a skull.

Slowly Zhalia made her way across the bridge. She stopped in front of the crystal scull and an inscription on the marble podium caught her attention.

_**The real heart of the bloodspiral lies here…**_

_**The keeper of all dead existences and the guarantee of life for the bloodspiral's human monarch…**_

Suddenly her heart skipped a beat. She knew what this meant. Destroying the skull was her chance to revive all the people she had killed. This was her chance to forever end her bad conscious. She could revive Lok's father and maybe she would also one day find him and give Lok and the Foundation back what she had taken them away. This was her chance to be one day accepted from the Foundation as a member and not as a murderer.

She took out her dagger and lifted her arm up above the crystal skull. In her mind she counted down: 3… 2… 1…

With full force she stabbed the skull with the dagger.

Suddenly the lake started to get disturbed and she heard a roll of thunder in her ears. The skull started vibrating and Zhalia tried with all her strength to not let go of her dagger. Abruptly memories were set free in her mind. Each and every bad memory and her whole kinky life started to repeat itself in her head. This thing tried to fight her with psychic weapons.

The death of her parents, the cruel strategies of Klaus' education, the moments in which she killed all the Foundation members, the moment where she nearly killed Metz, the evening she killed Klaus, the night she left Zhalia Moon behind and became Kayla, the day when she realised that it was Lok's father whom she had killed, the period of time where she had thought that there would be never a chance for Dante and her, the day when she decided to sacrifice herself for Lok, the days where Scarlett had blackmailed her and the day where she had decided to throw herself from the cliff to save the others…

There was no end, all the tragic things that had happened in her so called life tried to manipulate her. She tried to keep control, to stay calm. Voices called and whispered her name in her mind. It was so unbearable loud, at least she experienced it like this.

Suddenly, when she had just thought that she couldn't take it no more, everything abruptly stopped. Silence filled the room and this silence was nearly worse than the noise. The scull stopped glowing and shattered into a thousand shards. Zhalia lost the grip over her dagger, she lost the control about her senses, she lost conscious, it felt like she had lost herself once again in the mess which was her life…

**Dante's pov - a few minutes before the destruction of the skull **

He still hadn't found her. He had searched everywhere where he would have expected Zhalia to be. But honestly, how could Dante have known that his girlfriend had chosen the highest tower to fight her enemy and that she had after this hurried to the basement vaults.

Suddenly he was pushed against the brick wall and pinned against it with full force. He felt the cold blade of a sword pressing against his throat.

`Where is she? I saw what you two did to Shauna and Wind. Where is the little brat? ´, Rassimov's voice was silent, nearly inaudibly but Dante understood every word. A wave of happiness and relief floated through his body**. **She was alive. He was now sure. Even if he didn't find her, Shauna was dead and that meant that SHE was alive, running around in this castle somewhere. This insurance gave him all his strength back.

`Honestly? I don't know. But I know for sure where your siblings are. And I think it's a place where they won't come back from in the near future´, Dante couldn't contain himself.

Dante felt how Rassimov struck out and ducked himself so Rassimov's blade met the brick wall and splintered.

`Uh, I guess this sword was not from good quality´, Dante joked and took out his dagger. He jumped forward and pushed his dagger into Rassimov's stomach. He had been too fast for Rassimov to react. Blood dabbled through the corridor and hot liquid floated over Dante's hands.

Suddenly a sound which was very similar to thunder rolled through the castle and filled every room with its effect. Rassimov's eyes widened. He seemed to know where this rolling thunder came from. He, different to Dante, seemed to know that it was the end. His and the bloodspiral's end.

Dante panicked, he didn't know where this sound came from but he knew that his girlfriend was probably at this place too. He threw Rassimov to the ground and placed his foot on his enemy's stomach wound. Torturing information out of a person wasn't his usual manner but in a case like this…

`Now you will tell me where this came from´, he didn't wait for an answer before he started yelling, `I said tell me! Now! ´. The pain in his stomach seemed to cause Rassimov to reveal the place where the skull was set. Dante had left him before his heart had stopped beating…

Dante's heart froze when he entered the underground hall. Zhalia was lying backward at the end of the bridge near the water. She was pale and she had a wound at her head. Some strands of her midnight-blue hair reached into the water and were floating. Around her on the bridge lay thousands of crystal shards. Next to her on the marble floor her dagger lay, still covered with drained blood which was probably from Shauna.

As he approached her he could see that her eyes were open, starring at the dark ceiling. He could directly tell that she wasn't dead, but something else was wrong. He kneeled down beside her and checked her pulse. It was frequent. He called her name a few times until she reacted. Her eyes suddenly after a long time focused on him again and turned from glassy to attentive.

`We made it. Zhalia, we made it. You made it, whatever you did down here. You made it. _The girl who shut herself off from the world just saved it*_´, Dante lifted her up so she could lean on. The success didn't seem to get to her. A silent and single tear rolled down her cheek. Dante wiped a long strand of hair out of her eyes and embosomed her. This was the end. They had made it.

They both knew that many challenges would still await them. But they had made it. They had not only challenged the bloodspiral. They had challenged their pasts and found their future…

**Hey guys,**

**First of all I'd like to apologise. I can't deny that I stopped writing for a very long time. I hope this chapter makes you a bit less upset. **

*****_ The girl who shut herself off from the world just saved it ~ This sentence is from the X-men Evolution season 4…_

**Please review…**

**Thank you for reading and as always I'd like to change my fellow reviewe!**

**A nice summer evening to all of you…**

**Yours**

**~MissLaboe~ **


	21. No matter what awaits us

**Epilogue**

**Third-person-narrator**

**Huntik Foundation's basis**

They had come back yesterday evening. Three months had stood between them and their home and they had finally reached it. Well, at least it was Dante's and the others' home. Zhalia still had to build her new home up or better, to get used to her new home.

Zhalia sat in the garden. They had taken off in winter and now it was early summer. The landscape had changed from grey to green while they had been away. It was a warm summer night and it looked as if it was going to rain soon. She let her fingers float over the grass. Yes, here it was. This was the place where she had buried her daggers months ago. She took out the small shovel and started digging.

After some minutes she hit upon a small wooden casket. A smile slit across her face as she opened it. There they were. Two daggers shrouded in a scarf. They looked antique but the blades were still sharp as razors. A sign of good quality.

She suddenly heard steps from behind her. She was able to tell it was Dante. The steps were silent, but self-confident. She didn't need to turn around to know that he was standing behind her but he didn't say a word.

`You know, I feel like I'm finally complete. I lost a part of me when my parents died and no one cared for me, and I lost my past and also myself when I became Kayla. But this journey gave me a new family that will access the empty whole my parents left. I buried my past with those daggers half year ago, when I became Kayla, and now I unearth it again because I can now combine Kayla and Zhalia. And now I have my past, myself and a family back´, she said calm, ` And that is an indescribable feeling´.

As he sat down beside her, she felt tiny raindrops dripping down on her pale skin. She looked up and saw how some of the blinking and sparkling stars were covered by grey clouds. They sat silent for a few moments and watched how the rain started to take over the heaven and listened to the raindrops dripping down on the water surface of the pond.

`You know, before I met you, my life was already settled. I would be leader of the Foundation living here at the Basis. But I don't know if I still want this. Those past months showed me which fortunes a team brings. And I want to enjoy them farther. I want to be a team-leader, not knowing what mission awaits us tomorrow or where we'll go. I want to be free… And I want you to be part of this future´, Dante whispered and kissed the back of her hand.

Zhalia looked at him, the rain was dripping from his auburn hair and his gaze was focused on her fingers with which he was playing.

`What makes you think I would want that? ´, she said with a slight smile. He chuckled at her answer.

`Well, I think future sitting in this Foundation Basis day by day, living here and growing old here wouldn't fit your way of living and thinking´, he smiled and put a strand of her hair behind her ear.

`Ok, that's true you got me. But it is also much simpler than that´, she laughed.

`Is it? ´, Dante asked.

`Yes, it is. Such a future wouldn't be an alternative because I'd want to be near you and sitting at this Basis day by day while you're away with your team would just mess me up!´, she admitted.

`Ah, that's of cause understandable. No one woman would want to sit here alone, while I'm gone…´, Dante said jokingly but was cut off by her. She poked his ribs with her elbow at this comment.

`Oh shut up´, she managed to say before he caught her in a passionate and tensioned, long kiss while the rain was still falling down…

_**Hey guys,**_

_**It's finally done… **_

_**For the last time I want to ask you for reviewing this story. It would be great for me to know what you finally think of my first story.**_

_**I want to apologise once again for long waiting periods between chapters. **_

_**And finally I want to thank everyone who has read and reviewed my story. I had so much fun writing it and I hope that you had twice as much fun reading it. As I said, this is/was my first FanFictionStory and I want to thank everyone for considering that. **_

_**Please review a last time to make me happy…(=**_

_**Yours deeply grateful**_

_**~MissLaboe~ **_


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